German Foreign Minister says China a challenge to ‘how we live together’
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Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday China posed a challenge to the “fundamentals of how we live together in this world” and Germany would work with mid-sized nations like Australia to de-escalate tension in the Indo-Pacific.
In a video address to an Australian foreign policy think tank, Baerbock said Australia’s experience of trade bans imposed by China had influenced Germany’s shift in policy towards Beijing.”China has changed, and that’s why our policy towards China also needs to change,” she told the Lowy Institute.While China was a partner on climate change, trade and investment, it was “a rival when it comes to the very fundamentals of how we live together in this world,” she said.”What we see is the emergence of a world of increasing systemic rivalry, in which some autocratic regimes seek to bend the international order to increase their spheres of influence, using not only military might but also economic clout.”Numerous countries were pivoting to China because they lacked alternatives, and Germany wanted to change this, she said.Germany would not promote new confrontation between blocs, but would diversify its trading partners and de-risk, she said.
