Baerbock travels to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji
Before her visit to the Indo-Pacific region, Germany’s Foreign Minister stressed Germany’s solidarity with the countries.
Berlin (dpa) – Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is setting off on a week-long visit to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. She is using the trip to send a message to China. Before heading off to the city of Adelaide in South Australia, she stressed how important it was for democracies to stand together when competing with authoritarian systems. Australia and New Zealand were being “buffeted by China’s increasingly offensive behaviour in the world far more than we are,” she said.
The German government has pledged to step up its engagement in security policy in the region around the Pacific and Indian oceans. “Security in Europe depends on security in the Indo-Pacific, and the reverse is also true,” Baerbock said. “If the international peaceful order comes under pressure on one side of the world, it crumbles on the other side of the world as well.”
After visiting Australia the minister will fly to New Zealand. The final stop on her tour is the nation of Fiji, which comprises over 300 islands in the South Pacific. Her meetings there will focus on climate change, which is affecting Fiji more than almost any other country around the world.