The world's two largest exporters, Germany and China, are strengthening ties to jointly battle the economic crisis.

With a string of signed business contracts and few political disagreements, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Thursday his visit to Berlin was putting him "in a really good mood."

Previous meetings between Wen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been rather icy after Merkel invited the Dalai Lama to the chancellery. Beijing broke off diplomatic ties and threatened to replace Germany with France as China's key partner in Europe. This time, however, it was all smiles. Common problems can have a unifying power.

Germany, Europe's largest economy, is experiencing possibly its worst recession since World War II, with some 400,000 jobs lost in January alone. The German economy will shrink by 2.5 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Even economic superpower China can't avoid the crisis entirely. Its growth will slow to 6.7 percent from 9 percent in 2008, the IMF said.

Both countries have extensive trade links, and expanding them is crucial to managing the economic slowdown, both leaders said Thursday.

Germany and China should "intensify cooperation to jointly overcome the (financial) crisis," Wen said.

Merkel added that "protectionism" would only hurt the global economy, vowing to set an example by stabilizing or even increasing trade between Germany and China.

Both have common interests in shaping the global economy. They are export nations, with China selling cheaply manufactured goods to the West, and Germany high-quality machinery and cars to countries all over the globe.

Germany's $1.4 trillion export engine is increasingly driven by money from emerging economies, including China.

German companies in 2008 sold some $40 billion worth of goods to China, a nearly 15 percent increase from the previous year. China needs German cars, machinery and technology to continue growing -- an economic win-win situation.

No wonder Berlin backs Beijing's bid for greater political clout. Merkel in 2007 invited China and four other emerging economies to the Group of Eight summit at the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm. On Thursday she said the G8 (which from Asia only includes Japan) was not able to effectively deal with the effects of the global financial crisis anymore.

"Most of the questions cannot be resolved by the G8 nations alone," she said Thursday.

And as orders from the rest of the world are canceled, greater bilateral business may be key to surviving the crisis.

For the visit to Berlin (and ensuing trips to Brussels, Britain and Spain), top managers from some 100 Chinese companies joined Wen's entourage. They hammered out a series of cooperation agreements with their German counterparts. German steel giant ThyssenKrupp will sell China its Transrapid magnetic levitation train technology, with Daimler planning to launch a joint venture producing trucks in China.

German companies, Wen said, would also stand to benefit from the $586 billion stimulus plan to modernize China's domestic infrastructure.

Chinese firms are now also making direct investments in Germany, a relatively new development.

Sany, a Chinese producer of heavy machinery, is planning to build a $130 million plant near Cologne, creating up to 600 jobs in the process.

Eberhard Sandschneider, a China expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin-based think tank, said Chinese companies increasingly will start investing in the West.

"After having focused on the development of their domestic market, Chinese companies are now looking for opportunities all over the world," he told United Press International in a telephone interview Friday. "Germany is especially interesting. It's a great starting point to conquer the European market."