... visit.
Initial Position of the Chancellor on the Eve of the Visit
Friedrich Merz’s position prior to his visit to the PRC was characterized by a threefold constraint in Germany’s approach toward Beijing. First, the economic interdependence between Germany and China remained deep and structural, with bilateral trade relations and integrated supply chains continuing to underpin the German Standort. Second, the institutional framework of de-risking had already been codified at both national and European Union levels, limiting the scope for substantive revision without incurring significant political and regulatory costs. Third, EU-level regulatory mechanisms substantially circumscribed the space for purely bilateral initiatives, requiring Berlin ...
... requires not only structure and order, but also dialogue and a constant sensitive exchange that considers all the nuances of geopolitics. Both structure and dialogue are necessary. One should never replace the other; they must always remain in harmony.
Germany and China – a constant balancing act of nuances
During Friedrich Merz's first visit to China in 2026, when both delegations sat opposite each other at the long table and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke about the importance of cooperation ...
... geopolitical crises. To maintain technological leadership, horizontal locational conditions need be improved: taxation, regulation, energy supply, and skilled labour. Local-content criteria could provide incentives for increased domestic production in Germany and the European Union.
Export dependencies, especially on the United States, should be reduced, and alternative sales markets opened. Free trade agreements can help minimize economic risks from trade conflicts.
Germany is one of the largest providers of international ...
... facilities.
In contrast to Ukraine, Greenland's cost and time factor for extracting these raw material deposits is very high. There is still a long way off.
Warmongering, mass hysteria and propaganda
"The Russians are coming, Russia is going to invade Germany!" These voices have been haunting the German population since February 2022.
Old fears have also been flaring up again in Poland and Lithuania, causing borders to be once more closed and massively fortified, such as with the construction ...
... bold escalation in U.S. trade policy, imposing a baseline 10% tariff on all imports and a specific 20% tariff on goods from the European Union (EU), up from the previous average tariff rate of 3.5%. [
1
] Framed as a countermeasure to persistent trade imbalances,... ... foundations, the Mar-a-Lago Accords, and broader implications and consequences of the U.S. retreat for U.S. allies, particularly Germany.
Trade Imbalances and Justifications
The United States currently runs a current account [
2
] and balance of payments ...
... Sanctions. What's New?
But what should be done if a Russian citizen imports this or that product for personal use? The most obvious example is entering the EU in a private car. At the beginning of July this year, German customs explained that
entering Germany by car is regarded as grounds for arrest.
In fact, German customs proceeded from the fact that Art. 3i of Regulation 833/2014 does not provide any exceptions for goods for personal use. It contains Clause 3a, which allows import for such use by ...
... developments around Ukraine, but did not lead to satisfactory results for the EU.
Given that the pan-European line is acquiring a distinct protective character, it could be amended by the member states that are the stakeholders of the dialogue, primarily Germany. The government of Olaf Scholz was destined to make unplanned strategic decisions regarding all the main partners outside the EU — the USA, Russia and China. This could have fundamental consequences for European-Chinese relations.
The role of ...
... Russia
On May 5, 2022, Igor Ivanov, RIAC President, had a meeting with French Ambassador Pierre Levy and German Ambassador Geza Andreas von Geyr at the French Embassy in Russia.
The meeting addressed the prospects in relations between Russia and the European Union against the backdrop of the ongoing special military operation on the territory of Ukraine. The issues of the current French Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the priorities of Emmanuel Macron's second presidential term ...
... energy demand without producing the high environmental impact of other fossil fuel alternatives, such as coal, oil, or gas.
The European Union’s strategy for the green transition will most likely depend on what narrative of the dichotomy will prevail on ... ... states, the strategies proposed to attain climate neutrality lack a cost-benefit analysis on the feasibility of such changes.
Germany’s energy mix is currently the most polluting one in the entire Union. In 2020, Germany emitted 604.8 million metric ...
... appreciated the initial initiative by France back in 2014 to use this Normandy gathering to set up a negotiating format, which we hoped would facilitate progress along the implementation of the Minsk agreements. Unfortunately, the efforts of France and Germany over all these years were not sufficient to persuade Kyiv to implement the Minsk agreements. I can refer to the very last meeting of the political advisors of the Normandy leaders in Berlin, a couple of weeks ago, where the Ukraine representatives ...
