Merkel starts China visit on Sunday

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit China on Sunday for a round of consultations between the two countries' governments, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei announced on Monday.

Merkel, on an official visit until June 14, will co-host with Premier Li Keqiang the fourth round of the China-Germany Intergovernmental Consultations, Hong said.

More than 20 ministerial-level or deputy-ministerial level officials from both countries will take part in the consultations to discuss bilateral cooperation in various fields for the next phase, the spokesman said.

Merkel will meet in Beijing with President Xi Jinping and National People's Congress Standing Committee Chairman Zhang Dejiang. She will also visit Shenyang, the capital city of Northeast China's Liaoning province.

This will be the ninth visit to China by Merkel as chancellor, after German President Joachim Gauck visited China in March.

The China-Germany Intergovernmental Consultations were first held in Berlin in 2011, co-hosted by Merkel and the then Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. There have been three rounds of such consultations.

Hong, the spokesman, said the intergovernmental consultations are "the most important platform" to plan, push forward and coordinate bilateral cooperation.

While China is this year's G20 president, Germany will be the president of the group for the next year.

Hong said the two countries have been keeping in close communication and cooperating well with each other, and are coordinating and cooperating more closely in international and regional affairs.

"Strengthen bilateral cooperation is in line with the two countries' fundamental interests as well as helpful to the development of China-EU relations," he said, adding that China will take the consultations as an opportunity to promote new development in bilateral pragmatic cooperation.