In this case, the announcement came Thursday morning, when the Merkel and Li noted that China had signed a $17 billion deal for 130 Airbus passenger aircraft.
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Airbus – which has an aircraft assembly facility in the northern Chinese port of Tianjin – is engaged in a fierce struggle with its U.S. rival Boeing for dominance in the crucial Chinese market. Germany is China’s leading economic partner in Europe, with bilateral trade between the two countries hitting a record high in 2014.
Chinese demand for air travel has grown and China needs more planes in order to meet that growing demand, said an analyst based in Hong Kong.
Merkel and Keqiang also attended the signing of agreements between Nokia Corp. and phone carrier China Mobile Ltd. and between Volkswagen AG and a Chinese bank, ICBC Ltd.
The agreement is a major step forward for Airbus Helicopters in China – a country which is becoming the world’s largest market for helicopters and in which the European rotorcraft manufacturer keeps increasing its footprint.
The 30 A330s firm up options taken in June, when China announced an order for 45 of the wide-body aircraft plus options for 30 more. It marks the first time Li has invited a foreign leader to his home province.
Combining the high-end technologies of the developed country and the medium-end technologies and equipment of China “will better cater to the needs of developing economies” and benefit all three parties involved, the premier said.
Beijing rebuked Washington for sending a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of one of China’s man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago on Tuesday, saying it had tracked and warned the USS Lassen and called in the United States ambassador to protest.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Li Keqiang accorded a red-carpet welcome to Merkel, who is on her eighth visit to China since 2005 in the capacity of chancellor, and then held formal talks with her, Xinhua news agency reported.
In advance of this weekend’s meeting, petitions have already been prepared within the conservative bloc calling on the government to limit the number of refugees entering the country, CDU politician Christian von Stetten told German newspaper Handelsblatt on Friday.
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The meeting is set to turn on new initiatives for controlling the flood and deal with the critical situation on the Austrian border, where thousands of migrants are flocking into Germany on a daily basis. Turkey would continue to accomodate the more than two million refugees who are now in Turkish territory seeking entrance into the European Union, particularly into Germany, and re-admit refugees who have been rejected by the EU.
