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Armin Laschet, a leader in becoming Germany’s next chancellor, has warned of the dangers of a new cold war against China, coinciding with Angela Merkel that Beijing was both a partner and a systemic rival.
Laschet spoke with the Financial Times after the first official trip by U.S. President Joe Biden to Europe, dominated by warnings about China’s challenge to the West. Biden has made it clear that he wants to working with allies to curb China’s ambitions.
In an extensive interview, Laschet, leader of Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, suggested that many in Europe were skeptical about his hawkish attitude toward China.
“The question is, if we talk about ‘slowing down’ China, will that lead to a new conflict? Do we need a new adversary?” He said. “And there the European response was prudent, because yes, China is a competitor and a systemic rival, it has a different model of society, but it is also a partner, especially in things like the fight against climate change. “
Laschet also called for Russia to come out of the cold and said the West should try to “establish a sensible relationship” with Moscow. “Ignoring Russia has served neither ours nor the United States,” he said, praising Biden’s decision to meet. Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva last week.
With three months to go before the election that will allow Merkel to step down as chancellor, polls suggest Laschet’s CDU is on the verge of winning, despite facing a strong challenge from the opposition Greens. One possible outcome is a CDU-Green coalition, the first in German history, with Laschet as chancellor.
During the interview, Laschet struggled to suggest the continuity of Merkel’s policies. The two had very different personal biographies, but “we always agree on the fundamental issues.”
An area of the deal seems to be China. Merkel has often been accused of tempering her criticism of China’s human rights violations for fear of harming the interests of German companies active in China.
Laschet said Germany should never shy away from addressing “critical issues”. “But I’m not sure that speaking out loud and aggressively in public about a country’s human rights situation really leads to improvements on the ground,” he added.
“You can often get more into the human rights area by addressing issues in private conversations with leaders from other countries than by talking about them at press conferences.”
This soft and gentle approach could establish a potential confrontation with the Greens, who are much more eager to publicly challenge China for its human rights record, as well as tensions with the Biden administration.
Biden’s tough stance on China it became evident during his European trip. The G7 summit statement criticized Beijing for human rights, trade and lack of transparency about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Asked if he believed Biden was trying to drag Europe into a new Cold War, Laschet declined, saying he was “right” to see China as “one of the biggest challenges for us, for example in new technologies.” he wanted to “strengthen” cooperation between democracies. “
But he also said the West should resist falling into a Cold War mentality when it came to its geopolitical competition with China. “The 21st century is very different and the prism of the look of the world before 1989 offers limited advice,” he said. “We have a multipolar world [now] with different actors “.
Laschet insisted, however, that it would not be a soft touch to China. “I will try to promote our partnership whenever possible and, at the same time, make it clear what we expect from China: that it accepts reciprocity, that it embraces multilateralism and that it respects human rights.
On Russia, Laschet said he had always insisted that the annexation of Crimea was an “unacceptable” violation of international law. But he also argued that Russia, a member of the UN Security Council, should not be ignored or belittled.
He argued, for example, with Barack Obama’s famous characterization of Russia as a “regional power,” saying that this was one of the causes of rising tensions between Moscow and the West over the past decade.
“It is the largest country in the world, a nuclear power,” he said, adding that Biden’s approach: restore ambassadors, describe Russia as a “great power” and “take Russia seriously as a partner” – he had said. sent a “very important signal”.
Laschet defended the Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipelines, the Gazprom project that brings natural gas directly to Germany from Russia via the Baltic Sea, saying Germany will need more gas as it phases out nuclear and coal power.
But he also received a warning for Moscow: the pipeline “should not become a geopolitical instrument against Ukraine.” “Ukraine’s interests must be safeguarded,” he said. “And if the Russians do not comply, the basis of the NS2 agreement will cease to exist.”
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