German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock set off on Wednesday for a week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, which will focus on security policy and climate protection.
Baerbock pointed out that the region is becoming increasingly important for Germany for strategic and economic reasons, especially given tensions with China over human rights, trade and Taiwan.
Australia and New Zealand are “more directly exposed than we are to the violent gusts of wind sent around the world by China’s increasingly offensive behavior,” she said.
They have a lot of experience with their authoritarian neighbor, “whose foreign policy toolbox also includes economic pressure and who also tests our democracies through espionage and other influence operations.”
Three Germans have been arrested in recent days on suspicion of spying for China. Beijing is also taking an increasingly aggressive stance in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, threatening to invade the democratic island of Taiwan, which it considers its own territory.
The federal government has decided to become more involved in security policy in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and is sending a warship, the frigate Baden-Württemberg, there for the second time next week for training purposes.
“Security in Europe also depends on security in the Indo-Pacific – and vice versa,” said Baerbock. “If the international peace order comes under pressure on one side of the world, it will also collapse on the other side of the world.”
The Green politician pointed out that Australia and New Zealand are among the countries outside NATO that are supporting Ukraine militarily and financially in defending itself against a Russian invasion.
Baerbock actually wanted to visit the countries last August, but had to cancel the trip after a stopover in Abu Dhabi because her government machine ran into a series of technical problems.
The trip has now been rescheduled with a slightly different itinerary. She travels to Adelaide in Australia on Wednesday, on Friday evening to the New Zealand city of Auckland and from there on Sunday to Fiji, which extends over 300 islands in the South Pacific.
With a population of just under 1 million, Fiji is one of the countries most affected by climate change. Residents on some islands have already had to be evacuated because they were threatened with flooding due to rising sea levels.
Baerbock will be the first German foreign minister to visit the island nation.
