Angela Merkel worried about 'serious conflict' in South China Sea

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/29/angela-merkel-serious-conflict-south-china-sea

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Angela Merkel has expressed concern about a territorial dispute between the Chinese and US navies in the South China Sea, and suggested China go to international courts to resolve the row.

On a two-day visit to China, the German chancellor said it was essential that sea trade routes remained open despite the friction, which flared up after a US warship challenged China’s territorial claims in the disputed waters this week.

“The territorial dispute in the South China Sea is a serious conflict. I am always a bit surprised why in this case multinational courts should not be an option for a solution,” said Merkel, in Beijing. “We wish that the sea trade routes stay free and safe, because they are important for all.”

Beijing rebuked Washington for sending a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of one of China’s manmade islands in the Spratly archipelago on Tuesday, saying it had tracked and warned the USS Lassen and called in the US ambassador to protest.

Related: China will take ‘all necessary’ measures in future US sail-bys in South China Sea

Merkel and Li Keqiang, the Chinese premier, earlier addressed the situation in Syria and agreed there must be a political solution to the crisis there.

Russia last month began airstrikes in Syria in an escalation of foreign involvement in the civil war, a move criticised by the west as an attempt to prop up Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

A big focus of Merkel’s China trip is trade, and she is keen to shore up German business interests challenged by Volkswagen’s emissions scandal and the flurry of deals clinched during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Britain last week.

Her visit paid dividends, with China and Germany signing a deal that will see Chinese airlines buy 130 jets manufactured by Europe’s Airbus Group SE.

Merkel also said Germany and China were ready to sign a deal to abstain from industrial spying. “We want to sign an agreement that both sides abstain from industrial espionage,” said Merkel, noting that the US and Britain already have such accords with China.

Merkel also said Germany had opened talks aimed at bringing two giant pandas to Berlin zoo. She said: “This is a very special piece of China that will please a lot of people in Germany.”

The giant panda is unique to China and pandas are regularly sent abroad as a sign of warm diplomatic relations or to mark breakthroughs in ties.

Berlin’s last panda, Bao Bao, was sent in 1980 as a gift from then-Chinese leader Hua Guofeng to West Germany’s chancellor, Helmut Schmidt. Bao Bao died in 2012.