German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to deepen economic ties with Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines as Europe’s largest economy looks to diversify trade relations in Asia and become less dependent on China.
Scholz will receive leaders of the three Southeast Asian countries for separate talks in Berlin this week, in what close aides have described as a coordinated push to reduce one-sided dependencies on China and improve Germany’s economic resilience through more diverse supply chains and raw-materials partnerships.
Despite political efforts to pivot away from Beijing, China remained Germany’s most important trading partner in 2023 for the eighth consecutive year, and foreign direct investments by German companies in China reached a fresh record.