Foreign policy after Merkel: Looking for a new summit face

Tensions with Russia, system competition with China and increased expectations from allies. Difficult tasks are facing the coming federal government. But what’s next after Merkel?

It is a remarkable moment. On Wednesday of this week, the Chancellor and the US Secretary of State stand side by side in front of the cameras in the Chancellery. Antony Blinken says: “The United States has no better partner, no better friend in the world than Germany.” Diplomacy has its own courtesy in most situations. But these blinking words are far from routine. Redefining the transatlantic relationship is one of the major tasks of a future federal government.

Angela Merkel – on the home stretch of her term in office – will be responsible for this for a few more months. After the general election, Germany will be represented on the world stage by a different face and will determine the broad lines of foreign and security policy. Baerbock. Lash. Scholz. What are your ideas about Germany’s role in the world? How do their positions differ? In the evening they have the opportunity to provide specific answers. 90 minutes long. At a discussion of the Munich Security Conference and ARD capital studio.

More involvement in your own neighborhood

One look at this week’s headlines is enough to see what is in store for Angela Merkel’s successor. The US makes it very clear that the times of the rumbling “America first!” should be over. You want to rely more on partnership-based cooperation internationally.

In return, they have the expectation that the burdens will be shared differently. Europe and Germany too must be prepared to become more involved, especially in their own neighborhood. The German government received a lot of praise this week for the mediation efforts in Libya.

Relations with Russia are bad for a long time

The decisive factor for the future of the country, however, remains whether Russia, Turkey and others really stick to the summit resolutions. Taking on more responsibility: is the Bundeswehr prepared and equipped for this? A new federal government will have to agree on common positions on contentious issues such as military spending or arming drones. The most recent attack on the Bundeswehr in Mali has once again made the risks of deployments abroad very clear.

Relations with Russia are worse than they have been for a long time. At the EU summit, Merkel was unable to prevail in her joint advance with Macron. The proposal to include a more stringent sanctions regime in the summit declaration was well received. However, many EU members refused to hold a summit with Putin. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea continues to cause trouble. The USA also fear that Russia could use the project to damage Ukraine. After all, President Biden has made advance payments towards Germany. There are no sanctions against the pipeline for the time being, although there is great pressure in their own country from both Republicans and Democrats.

China, the “systemic rival”

How to deal with the economically and militarily powerful China? The EU calls the country a “systemic rival”. But in addition to competition and opposition, China also needs to be a partner for major global issues such as climate protection. The USA would like the West to appear as one. In an interview with the daily topics Foreign Minister Blinken said: “We’ll drive better if we tackle China together.”

There are also questions about the future of the European Union on which the positions of the Union, the SPD and the Greens diverge. In the corona pandemic, Merkel was ready to cross a deep red line and agree to joint debts of the EU. Does the development fund remain a one-off process, or has the door been pushed open for further deepening in this direction? The list of topics could be extended at will.

Merkel is still in the Chancellery. She will be a guest at the White House in mid-July. But the farewell has begun. Annalena Baerbock, Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz line up to fill in very large footprints in the years to come.