BEIJING — Premier Li Keqiang said on April 28 that China stands ready to work with Germany to keep the overall direction of bilateral relations featuring dialogue and cooperation and promote Sino-German relationship to a higher level.

Premier Li made the remarks when co-chairing the sixth China-Germany inter-governmental consultation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel via video link in Beijing.

He stressed that cooperation and win-win results are the main thrust of China-Germany all-around strategic partnership.

Premier Li called on China and Germany to enhance anti-epidemic cooperation, promote fair and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, and reject vaccine nationalism.

He said the two countries should give full play to their fast track for essential travels and jointly safeguard the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains.

Noting that both sides are willing to embrace opening-up and uphold fair competition, the Premier said China stands ready to work with EU to jointly promote the signing and entry into force of the China-EU investment agreement as soon as possible to facilitate the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations.

For her part, Merkel said Germany advocates opening-up and cooperation and opposes to protectionism.

She underscored the importance of the investment agreement between EU and China and expressed hope that the two sides can jointly promote entry into force of the agreement at an early date.

After the consultation, Premier Li and Merkel jointly witnessed the "cloud signing" of a series of bilateral cooperation documents including climate response, social security, health, food safety, transportation and sustainable development.

During the consultation, Premier Li and Merkel also attended a bilateral forum on economic and technological cooperation and met with Chinese and German business leaders via video link.

Premier Li said in the first quarter of this year, China-Germany trade went up by 41.5 percent year-on-year, which is a full demonstration of the high-level and huge potential of bilateral cooperation.

He said the more than 7,000 German enterprises in China and more than 2,000 Chinese companies in Germany have become an "active force" of bilateral cooperation.