On Sunday morning, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul set off for the Indo-Pacific region. Over six days, he will visit five very different countries. “We live in a time in which old certainties are crumbling, in which the law of the strongest threatens to replace the strength of the law,” the minister said ahead of his departure. “Precisely now, we must expand our global network of robust partnerships along our core interests.”
The Indo-Pacific region is strategically crucial for Germany and Europe in many respects – whether for trade, securing key raw materials or diversifying supply chains. Wadephul is not being accompanied by a business delegation on the trip. However, two members of the Bundestag are traveling with him: Ellen Demuth (CDU), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Marja-Liisa Völlers (SPD), a member of the Defense Committee.
On Monday, Wadephul will meet his counterpart in Singapore to explore deeper cooperation within the strategic partnership. “Here you can feel the pulse of technological innovation and international trade,” Wadephul said. The city-state and the EU have been linked by a free trade agreement since 2019 – the EU’s first with an ASEAN country. Last year, the Bundestag approved an investment protection agreement.
Later the same day, Wadephul will continue on to Auckland, New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand, Wadephul said, are “values partners on the other side of the world”, with whom Germany is also working ever more closely on security policy. The EU and New Zealand have also been connected by a free trade agreement since 2024. Wadephul will discuss, among other topics, their joint engagement in Antarctica with his counterpart. He also described New Zealand as a “gateway to the Pacific island world”. There, he will meet the prime minister of Niue to seal the establishment of diplomatic relations.
The next stop is Tonga, a South Pacific island state. Germany and Tonga are celebrating the 150th anniversary of their friendship treaty this year, as well as 50 years of diplomatic relations. Tonga is also home to the Pacific Resilience Facility, a climate fund of the Pacific Islands Forum, a grouping of Pacific island states. Wadephul pledged €5 million to the fund last year.
The trip then continues to Australia’s capital, Canberra, where Wadephul will talk with his counterpart about trade issues, among other topics. The EU has been negotiating a free trade agreement with Australia since 2018. Australia plays a key role in the German government’s raw materials strategy and is among the world’s leading commodity exporters. In May 2024, the European Union and Australia signed an agreement on critical and strategic minerals.
The final stop is the Southeast Asian sultanate of Brunei. Wadephul wants to intensify cooperation with ASEAN. The EU has long sought a free trade agreement with ASEAN, but that goal remains distant – not least because of the military dictatorship in Myanmar. Also likely to be ever-present is the German government’s desire to secure a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, for which it also needs the support of smaller states.
The trip will also be shaped by a country that is not on the route: China. This is because it ties into a strategy Germany first articulated with its Indo-Pacific guidelines in 2020. “They were a result of growing frustration with China,” said Angela Stanzel, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Under Xi Jinping, China has become more authoritarian, its approach to neighbors has grown tougher, and market access has become more difficult. Since 2019, the EU has officially viewed China as a partner, competitor, and rival. Germany followed with its China strategy in 2023.
“Under Merkel, the logic was reversed,” Stanzel said. “If you can’t change China, maybe you can shape the environment.” The guidelines provide an overview of what Germany could envision with countries in the region – on the economy, security, climate and many other topics. Germany wanted free trade agreements and therefore, together with France and the Netherlands, also pushed for an EU Indo-Pacific strategy.
The desire for diversification has since grown exponentially. Even during the first Trump administration, it was fashionable among diplomats and think tankers to argue for stronger cooperation among middle powers, with countries such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand playing key roles. In the second Trump administration, those calls have become more urgent – most recently in Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech in Davos.
The urgency of security cooperation has also increased. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has reinforced the understanding that European and Asian security are linked. Security policymakers consider it possible that China could coordinate an attack on Taiwan with a Russian attack on NATO’s eastern flank. While Taiwan did not appear in the 2020 guidelines, it did in the 2022 annual progress report, shaped by the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “That also provides a framework for Germany’s engagement in and with Taiwan,” Stanzel said.
Berlin is seeking dialogue – through deployments such as the Indo-Pacific missions of the German frigates Bayern in 2021/22 and Baden-Württemberg in 2024, which served not only military purposes but also political diplomacy in the region.