From December 8 to 11, 2009, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun went to Germany for the political consultations between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries. During his stay in Germany, Zhang paid a courtesy call on German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and held talks with Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Werner Hoyer and State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office Wolf-Ruthart Born. Zhang also met with Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Cornelia Pieper as well as Sigmar Gabriel, leader of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD), and Volker Kauder, chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union. Both sides agreed to further develop China-Germany friendly cooperative relations and exchanged in-depth views on international and regional issues of common concern.