German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged closer trade ties between Europe and Asia at a Singapore lecture, saying middle powers need to coordinate as the global order weakens, Reuters reported.
Merz proposed closer links between the European Union and members of the 12-country Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Reuters reported. CNA reported his estimate that the EU and CPTPP economies together account for more than one-third of global trade. He presented closer trade ties as part of a wider call for Europe and Asia to cooperate.
Reuters reported that Merz warned the weakening international system threatened the interests of middle powers in both regions. “Our freedom, our sovereignty, our security and our prosperity are at stake,” he said, according to Reuters.
Merz also described a free-trade agreement between the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a long-term goal for Germany, CNA reported. “I want us to take the next step in trade policy,” he said, according to CNA.
Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Merz’s Oct. 27-28 visit is his first official trip to the city-state. He delivered the 49th Singapore Lecture, titled “Germany and the Indo-Pacific: Partnership, Competitiveness, and Resilience in a Changing World.”
In a Berlin speech on Oct. 21, Merz identified unfair subsidies, overcapacity, aggressive pricing and artificially undervalued currencies as trade concerns, according to the German government. Its transcript also records his call for faster EU trade defenses, a subject EconoTimes covered in an earlier report on his push to speed up those measures.
The German government said the Oct. 26-30 trip to Singapore, Japan and South Korea aims to deepen economic and security cooperation. Merz is scheduled to travel to Japan on Oct. 28 and South Korea from Oct. 29.
