diplomacy
Baerbock wants to strengthen cooperation in Southeast Asia
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wants to strengthen partnerships on her trip to Southeast Asia. photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
After crisis diplomacy in the Middle East, the Foreign Minister travels to a region of the world where China is trying to expand its power. Baerbock wants to strengthen partnerships. It’s also about self-interest.
Foreign Minister In view of the increasingly aggressive Chinese government, Annalena Baerbock wants to promote closer cooperation with partners in Southeast Asia.
“The freedom of sea routes, the security of supply chains and thus global economic development are at stake here – in an area through which a third of global maritime trade flows,” warned the Green politician before her departure from Beirut for a two-day visit South East Asia. Baerbock landed in the Philippine capital Manila in the morning.
Initially, Baerbock was scheduled to meet with her colleague Enrique Manalo. There should also be a conversation with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. afterwards. The son of the former president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos won the 2022 presidential elections with a large majority.
The tropical island nation in the Pacific has around 114 million inhabitants and extends over more than 7,600 islands. The Philippines’ most important economic partners are China, Japan and North Korea as well as the USA. Germany is the most important trading and investment partner among the EU states.
Baerbock: Region at the epicenter of global growth
Despite the distance of more than 10,000 kilometers, it can be felt all the way to Europe “how much Southeast Asia is bursting with economic dynamism and what strategic importance this region has,” said the Federal Foreign Minister. The region lies “at the epicenter of global growth – and at the same time is struggling with the increasingly harsh political winds that are blowing against the rules-based international order in the South China Sea.”
The rules governing cooperation between states came under pressure in the South China Sea when, for example, “an increasingly offensive China lays claim to extensive sea areas, some of them up to the coasts of the other neighbors,” criticized Baerbock. To ensure that the harsh wind does not turn into a global storm, it is important to “continue to clearly follow international law – and at the same time provide space for diplomatic initiatives, détente and peaceful dispute resolution.”
Always incidents
In recent years there have been repeated incidents between China and the Philippines in the 3.5 million square kilometer South China Sea. In addition to geopolitical questions, it involves fishing grounds, raw materials such as oil and natural gas, and the security of sea routes. Baerbock also wants to visit a coast guard ship in the capital Manila.
There has been a dispute between Beijing and the Philippine government for decades over the area of widely scattered reefs and islands west of the Philippines and far south of China. The countries’ patrolling coast guards regularly carry out dangerous maneuvers there. In October, China and the Philippines blamed each other for multi-ship collisions. In August, a Chinese coast guard ship fired at Philippine boats with water cannons and was also said to have used lasers.
China claims practically the entire South China Sea as its own. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also claim territory there. The USA and China’s neighbors accuse Beijing of increasing militarization in the region. The International Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected China’s territorial claims in 2016. Beijing ignores the ruling.
Also skilled workers and climate protection issues
The minister announced that she wanted to work even more closely with the Philippines on climate protection. The cooperation between skilled workers also holds great potential. Thousands of Filipino nurses did indispensable work in Germany.
The minister also wanted to visit a training center for technical education where, among other things, mechatronics engineers are trained. In the social sector, around 2,500 nursing professionals from the Philippines have been recruited for Germany since 2013 on the basis of a bilateral agreement.