Germany and China have resumed dialogue, with junior ministers leading talks on strategic issues, while consultations on human rights are set for next month, DPA quoted the sources of the German Foreign Ministry as saying Friday. The resumption of the regular rounds of talks was announced in June by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Beijing after a period of coolness over the Tibet issue. Yang said in June that this week's "strategic dialogue" in Berlin on security and economic issues would also cover climate and environmental policy, but the statement gave no details Friday of what was discussed. Beijing was upset when Chancellor Angela Merkel received the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in September 2007. The German media this year criticized China's crackdown on protesters in Tibet and Steinmeier urged Beijing to meet the Dalai Lama. The Steinmeier visit to Beijing and a visit by a Chinese vice-premier, Zhang Dejiang, to Germany last month ended the chill. The Foreign Ministry said a German state secretary, Reinhard Silberberg, and an assistant minister of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wu Hongbo, headed the day of talks Thursday in Berlin. Steinmeier said in a statement, "We are delighted at the resumption of the strategic dialogue." The bilateral human rights dialogue is to resume in Beijing in November with a visit by a senior German diplomat, Guenter Nooke.
