Before concluding his visit to China this week and returning to Germany, German President Steinmeier accepted an exclusive interview with German television station ARD. The station's reporter Matthias Deiß asked: "There is recent news that China hopes or will enter into joint negotiations with the United States and Russia, which may also involve the Ukrainian issue. What can you tell us about this?"
Steinmeier replied: "I read such reports and mentioned it directly to President Xi Jinping. It can be seen from his facial expression that he seemed a little confused, because he then asked where these rumors came from."
Steinmeier said that Xi Jinping mentioned the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, but believed that there were currently no preparations for any summit on Ukraine involving the United States, Russia and China.
Steinmeier added that Xi Jinping also made it clear: "This is a European conflict, and Europeans must sit at the negotiating table."
Where did the rumors come from?
After U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on October 21, Putin's assistant Yury Ushakov said: "The meeting also touched on a topic that has attracted global attention: the leaders of Russia, China and the United States may hold a historic first meeting during the upcoming APEC summit in Shenzhen, China."
Ushakov said that Moscow, Washington and Beijing have not ruled out this idea. He also said that China, as the host of the APEC summit, "will be responsible for - or is already responsible for - the preparations." If conditions permit, China will definitely include this meeting in the agenda of the Shenzhen summit.
Major media around the world reported on this. As of press time, Ushakov’s above-mentioned statements are still available on the official website of the Russian President.
Economic and trade relations and artificial intelligence
Steinmeier also said that in all the talks during his visit to Beijing, Germany focused on economic and trade relations, especially the issue of imbalances. The German president revealed that Xi Jinping has expressed support for further talks with the European Commission on this issue. Steinmeier said frankly, "I also emphasize that not only Europe, but also Germany are not interested in a trade war. We are committed to finding a solution through dialogue."
When asked whether he had discussed the important topic of artificial intelligence with Xi Jinping, Steinmeier believed that the debate on the risks of artificial intelligence was intensifying. He pointed out: "When talking with the Chinese side, an interesting point is that President Xi Jinping also believes that this is an issue related to all mankind and involves how to ensure that technology is within control. President Xi Jinping also believes that we must seek an international rules system for this."
Steinmeier believes that in order to regulate artificial intelligence, one must first master the technology. He admitted that although the gap with China and the United States has widened, Europe is catching up.
A 'huge challenge' for democracies
He observed that China is also facing a serious problem of aging. Therefore, China naturally hopes to make up for the labor shortage through the application of artificial intelligence in the future. "But this does not mean that we can introduce artificial intelligence without scruples and even endanger the democratic process."
"Because the fact is that AI poses relatively few problems for societies led by authoritarian regimes," Steinmeier explains. "It sometimes even appears that these countries are happy to use AI to further improve their control of society."
The outgoing federal president warned: “But this is a huge challenge for democracies, because democratic systems are based on citizens’ autonomous consciousness and ability to judge. We must maintain these abilities and not allow humans to become appendages of machines. This requires a huge effort on our part.”
