(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union has a “great strategic interest” in maintaining cooperation with China in the face of a widening list of grievances with the government in Beijing.
In a speech in Berlin late Wednesday, the German leader said the 27-member bloc's relationship with China will be a top priority when her government takes over the six-month rotating EU presidency on July 1.
“We Europeans will need to recognize the decisiveness with which China will claim a leading position in the existing structures of the international architecture,” Merkel said in a video speech to the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, a think tank with ties to her Christian Democratic Union.
Even as European governments cast a critical eye on China's assertiveness -- above all its move to impose sweeping new security laws on Hong Kong -- Merkel said she'll aim to maintain a “critical, constructive” dialog with Beijing.
The German chancellor reiterated her aim to complete an investment accord with China, as well as finding common ground in fighting climate change and global health challenges.
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