Chinese special operation soldiers take part in military training demonstrations during the Great Wall-2019 International Forum on Counter-terrorism in Beijing, capital of China, June 18, 2019. File photo: Xinhua

Fighting terrorism lays the foundation for security cooperation between China and Germany, an expert noted as the third round of a bilateral high-level security dialogue kicked off on Friday.

Chen Yixin, secretary-general of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and Johannes Geismann, State Secretary and Federal Commissioner for Intelligence at the German Federal Chancellery presided over the dialogue held in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province.

The discussions focused on counter-terrorism and fighting transnational organized crimes involving cyber security and economy, and the two sides reached a consensus on what practical actions to take. They also agreed on areas for further cooperation.

During the meeting, Chen said terrorism and extremism have plagued some countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa, and China and Germany have been actively participating in fighting them. 

Fighting extremism is the premise of the security cooperation between China and Germany, Li Wei, a counter-terrorism expert at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, told the Global Times, noting that terrorism is a worldwide challenge. Though China and Germany are geographically far apart, terrorist forces in their countries share similarities and are connected in some ways.

Chen and Geismann believe that security cooperation is an important part of bilateral relations, and is of great importance under the current international situation.

Since the bilateral dialogue mechanism was formed in 2017, China and Germany have achieved results on security cooperation. 

Li also said that the two counties also face other mutual security threats, such as organized crime and cyber crimes. Those threats don't exist independently, and not a single country can fight those crimes alone, said Li. 

He said that security cooperation appears to be more urgent as economic cooperation between China and Germany deepens. 

"Economic cooperation is hard to maintain if it faces various security threats, so jointly cracking down on those threats sustains the two countries' economic ties," said Li. 

China has been holding dialogues with countries including Russia, the US, the UK, Germany and India since 2014. 

The security cooperation between China and other countries provides a model for international security cooperation, said Li. 

"It means that countries with different political systems, ideologies and traditions can still conduct practical cooperation in the field of security," he noted.