Germany refuses to turn a 'blind eye' to China, teams up with Australia
German officers are expected to be deployed with the Australian Navy and a German frigate will patrol the Indian Ocean under Berlin's plan to manage China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the German Defence Minister,
said the Indo-Pacific had become crucial to the world’s well-being.
"We believe that Germany needs to mark its position in
the region," she said in an exclusive interview.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, popularly known by her initials AKK, said
that Europe had become increasingly aware of China's economic agenda and
geopolitical tactics in the past year.
"China is an important trading partner for Germany and
we have strong economic ties which are in the interest of both sides," she
said.
"At the same time, we do not turn a blind eye on
unequal investment conditions, aggressive appropriation of intellectual
property, state-subsidised distortion of competition or attempts to exert
influence by means of loans and investments."
In 2018 the 58-year-old became the secretary general of the
Christian Democratic Union, Germany's largest political party. Subsequently she
was touted as a successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, in February she
announced she would not run for chancellor in the expected 2021 election and
would relinquish the party leadership.
Kramp-Karrenbauer is the first German minister to confirm
publicly that restrictions on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei would
effectively exclude the company from Germany's 5G network.
"Germany is, in principle, open to investment from all
sides. But if the technology offered to us is not beyond reproach, it cannot be
used," she said.
"The political ramifications would simply be too grave.
China is a country that understands very well the political dimension of IT
networks and data flows. I am sure our counterparts in Beijing understand that
we Europeans can only operate technology we trust."
Australia was the first western country to ban Huawei over
national security concerns in 2018. The United States and Britain have since
followed suit.
Kramp-Karrenbauer will speak at a virtual Australian
Strategic Policy Institute event co-hosted by the Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung
foundation on Thursday evening alongside Australia’s Defence Minister Linda
Reynolds.
She said a German naval presence in the Indo Pacific would
help to safeguard the rules-based international order. The region stretches
from the Indian Ocean to the Coral Sea and includes India, China, Japan and
Australia.
"We hope to be able to deploy next year," she
said. "We will be spending more on defence in 2021 than in 2020 despite
the fact that [coronavirus] has hit our budgets. Now the key is to translate
this into real muscle."
Kramp-Karrenbauer would not comment specifically on whether
the frigate would conduct freedom of navigation exercises in the South China
Sea, where China has made territorial claims that are disputed by countries
across Asia, the European Union, Australia and the US.
"Given the rising security challenges in the
Indo-Pacific region, it is my goal to intensify our bilateral and multilateral
collaboration. That could include, for example, the embarkation of German
officers on Australian Navy units – a project that is being negotiated as we
speak," she said.
Germany is working within NATO to expand relations with
like-minded states such as Australia in the Indo-Pacific, Kramp-Karrenbauer
confirmed. The alliance has historically involved 30 North American and European
countries.
"We share the same values, principles and interests. As
a consequence, we stand united against those who challenge us," she said.
"I am convinced territorial disputes, violations of
international law and China’s ambitions for global supremacy can only be
approached multilaterally."
The comments by Kramp-Karrenbauerare are the most direct by
a German or European minister on China to date. China is Germany's largest
trading partner and Germany has historically opted for a more cautious foreign
policy and defence outlook since World War II.
Merkel has faced criticism from German MPs and within her
party for not speaking out strongly enough on Beijing’s new security law
imposed in Hong Kong and the detainment of Muslim Uighur in Xinjiang.
Europe is also increasingly concerned about the future of
Taiwan after Beijing imposed new national security laws on Hong Kong, increased
its military presence in the Taiwan strait and released a stream of propaganda
videos preparing the Chinese public for a potential invasion.
The Chinese Communist Party reinserted the word “peaceful”
in its desire to unify with Taiwan through its Five Year Plan last week, after
omitting it in May.
"Anything outside a peaceful settlement of issues
across the Taiwan Strait would be seen as a major failure of statecraft,"
said Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer. "A purely military logic in this confrontation
would produce only losers."
The Defence Minister, who was member of the German Bundestag
for almost two decades and the head of her state of Saarland between 2011 and
2018, said that China's own recent actions, rather than increasing pressure
from the United States, had triggered a "rethink across Europe".
"What will be crucial, regardless of the outcome of the
[Wednesday AEDT] US presidential election, is whether the West can be more
unified in its dealings with Beijing," she said.
"We have always had our tiffs across the Atlantic. That
won’t change. What’s key is that we get the big stuff right. China is big
stuff."
Comments
Post a Comment