Foreign minister calls for reduction of unilateral dependencies, but rejects economic decoupling.
In view of China’s political changes, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called for a new European approach to the People’s Republic. During her state visit at the end of last week, she accordingly did not ignore conflict issues such as the human rights situation in China or the Taiwan conflict.
Like EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz before her, she nevertheless spoke out against economic decoupling, saying that cooperation was also essential in areas such as climate protection. However, unilateral dependencies would have to be reduced. Particularly in the case of strategic raw materials such as rare earths, Europe and Germany have so far been heavily dependent on imports from the People’s Republic. Baerbock’s ministry is currently working on a new China strategy (we reported), which will be published in the coming weeks, according to RND.
Baerbock, on the other hand, announced closer economic and political relations during her subsequent visit to South Korea. When it comes to reducing economic risks, Germany could learn a lot from South Korea, which is also closely intertwined with China, ZDF quoted the minister as saying. On Sunday, Baerbock traveled to Japan for the meeting of the G7 foreign ministers, where the relationship with China will also be a central topic.
Photo: iStock/BirgitKober
