Yang Jiechi (Photo: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn)

China's Foreign Minister is coming to Munich

For the first time, China sent its Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, to Munich, with a speech to the international, high-level forum opening on Sunday. Beijing had to be represented in previous years only through its ambassador.

"Yang will speak with great certainty even about the deteriorating relations with the U.S. and the resultant damage,"said the former director of the China Institute of International Relations, Yang Chengxu.

China had been actively engaged beyond its borders only in the context of UN peacekeeping missions or to fight piracy off the coast of Africa. Now, China is demonstrating interest in energy security, climate policy, proliferation of nuclear weapons and the issue of NATO (the four prioritised debates of Munich).