SPD parliamentary group leader
Mützenich on Taiwan’s statement: Macron is right
The chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Rolf Mützenich, commented on Marcon’s statement in the Taiwan conflict. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Macron called for a European stance on the Taiwan conflict. There was a lot of international criticism for this. Now there is a little encouragement from Germany.
SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich believes that French President Emmanuel Macron’s much-criticized statements about Europe’s role in the Taiwan conflict are justified. “We have to be careful not to become a party in a major conflict between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Europe must try to play its own role as far as possible and not appear as an appendage of the United States in the region.” Therefore, “Macron is right,” said Mützenich in the ARD “Morgenmagazin” about the president, who had presented a similar position. At the same time, the parliamentary group leader put the weight of Europe into perspective: “We are second, maybe even third in this region. The USA and the surrounding countries are important.”
Mützenich pointed out that in Asia there is not only the conflict over Taiwan, which China claims as its own, and that other states there are also prepared to use military force. “And that’s why a differentiated view of it is better than just always saying which party you’re affiliated with.”
He expects a possible visit by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) to China, which is being discussed in Berlin, to be difficult. She knows “that she will also be received in Beijing with a certain skepticism about Baerbock,” said Mützenich. He referred to China-critical statements by the minister. “She got involved in this situation in a very undifferentiated manner – at least from China’s point of view.”
Mützenich believes that a consistent, but not too bold and loud, approach to Beijing is right. “We have to stand up for democracy, we have to stand up for human rights. But that’s not that easy either, because we suddenly have new partners in Europe: Azerbaijan, Qatar, they don’t have a clean slate in terms of human rights either. That’s why we should don’t always appear with absoluteness – I think that’s not so well received in Asia in particular.”