Berlin on Wednesday appealed for efforts to reduce tension over Taiwan as the German foreign affairs minister flew to China for official talks.
German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock arrived in the northeastern port city of Tianjin for meetings and was due to hold talks with her Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang (秦剛), today in Beijing and with senior diplomat Wang Yi (王毅) tomorrow.
Her ministry said she would discuss Taiwan, Ukraine, human rights and other issues with Chinese officials.
Photo: Reuters
The Chinese Communist Party sent warships and fighter planes near Taiwan last weekend in retaliation for a meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“Threatening military gestures” increase “the risk of unintentional military confrontations,” a spokeswoman for Baerbock’s ministry, Andrea Sasse, said in Berlin.
“We therefore call on all partners in the region and are working also with our international partners to contribute to a de-escalation in the Strait of Taiwan,” Sasse said on Wednesday.
European governments are increasingly worried about Chinese pressure on Taiwan, a global high-tech center and one of the biggest trading economies.
“We hope Germany can refrain from politicizing business cooperation, making it something about ideology or security, or artificially setting up obstacles,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told a briefing yesterday.
Baerbock plans to travel to South Korea tomorrow and then attend a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Japan on Sunday.
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