Merz Begins Asia Tour as Germany Seeks Stronger Ties Amid Global Instability

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz began a five-day tour of Asia on Monday, starting in Singapore before moving on to Japan and South Korea. He is traveling with a delegation of 30 senior business figures, drawn from German industry, technology, defense and energy supply companies.

The trip coincides with a visit to China by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The two journeys are not officially linked, but both appear designed to strengthen Berlin's economic and security relationships at a time of geopolitical instability that threatens global supply chains.

In Singapore, Merz is due to give a major foreign policy speech and hold talks with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. On Wednesday he heads to Japan to meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and attend the German-Japanese Business Summit.

Ben Ascione, an assistant professor of politics and international relations at Waseda University in Tokyo, said the visit "will be very much welcomed in Tokyo." He told DW that Japan has spent more than a decade seeking new security allies and closer trade partnerships. The effort began under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he said, and Takaichi is following the same blueprint amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific and uncertainty over the second administration of US President Donald Trump.

Tokyo is deeply concerned about an increasingly expansionist China, particularly as Beijing builds closer ties with Russia and North Korea. China and Russia have held joint military exercises off Japan, and Beijing insists that Taiwan must come under mainland control. Ascione noted that a conflict over Taiwan, the South China Sea or other territorial claims would hit global trade and would affect Germany as well. He said the two countries have different primary threats, with Germany focused on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but that Berlin has moved closer to Takaichi's view of the danger posed by China.

Japan would also welcome German military deployments to the region, Ascione said. The frigate Bayern became the first German Navy warship to dock in Tokyo in 20 years in May 2021 and later held air and maritime exercises with Japanese units. In July 2024, German Eurofighter Typhoon jets carried out air drills with Japanese fighters over northern Japan. Merz and Takaichi are expected to discuss supply chain resilience, protection of strategic industries and access to technologies and components, including rare earths that remain largely controlled by China.

Merz will then travel to South Korea to meet President Lee Jae-myung and open the 19th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business in Seoul. He is also scheduled to visit the Demilitarized Zone on the border between North and South Korea.

Saeme Kim, a research fellow at The Asan Institute for Policy Studies, expects security to dominate the talks in Seoul. She said Merz could raise concerns about South Korea's outreach to North Korea and, by extension, Russia, pointing to recent discussion of petroleum exports to Russia, which Seoul says did not breach sanctions. "It's not just Germany, I think a lot of European countries will be irritated by the Lee administration trying to improve relations with North Korea and Russia," she said. This comes even though Kim Jong Un's government has sent troops to the conflict in Ukraine.

Merz may also share lessons from German reunification in 1990, though Kim cautioned that the situations differ, since the two Koreas are still technically at war and Seoul faces an aspiring nuclear power on its border. The DMZ visit could be canceled because of tensions over a North Korean mine that injured three South Korean soldiers last month. Pyongyang has accused the South of staging the incident.