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Baerbock in Lisbon: The Foreign Minister will have to master these crises in 2023

2023-01-05T06:23:35.873Z


Baerbock in Lisbon: The Foreign Minister will have to master these crises in 2023 Created: 01/05/2023 07:15 By: Christiane Kühl, Anna-Katharina Ahnefeld Portuguese Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock © Christophe Gateau/dpa Annalena Baerbock is traveling to Portugal for her first visit abroad in the new year. Months full of foreign policy crises lie behi


Baerbock in Lisbon: The Foreign Minister will have to master these crises in 2023

Created: 01/05/2023 07:15

By: Christiane Kühl, Anna-Katharina Ahnefeld

Portuguese Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock © Christophe Gateau/dpa

Annalena Baerbock is traveling to Portugal for her first visit abroad in the new year.

Months full of foreign policy crises lie behind her - 2023 also harbors great potential for conflict.

Lisbon - The morning on the Tagus River, where the hotel of the Foreign Minister's delegation is located, starts peacefully.

A red sun rises over the famous Ponte de 25 Abril suspension bridge, often compared to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

A natural spectacle that almost makes you forget how badly Portugal is now affected by the climate crisis.

The country is getting drier and hotter.

But not only the climate crisis is driving Annalena Baerbock (Greens) to Portugal.

Her first year as foreign minister was marked by multiple other trouble spots such as Russia's war in Ukraine, the demonstrations in Iran and, most recently, the rising tensions between Serbia and Kosovo.

2023 is unlikely to be quieter.

Her trip to Lisbon is therefore not only about international climate policy and Russia's war in Ukraine, but also about future dealings with the People's Republic of China and critical raw materials.

Foreign policy challenges in 2023: Annalena Baerbock on her first trip abroad in Lisbon

The

Frankfurter Rundschau

by

IPPEN.MEDIA

accompanied Annalena Baerbock to Portugal from January 3rd to 4th.

There, during her speech at a conference of the heads of the Portuguese missions abroad and the subsequent press conference with her Portuguese counterpart João Gomes Cravinho, she named foreign policy heavyweights in the new year.

  • Russia's War in Ukraine:

    Russia's invasion of Ukraine will in all likelihood dominate 2023.

    It is a traditional war of a kind hardly anyone thought possible in the 21st century.

    An end to the hostilities is not in sight.

    Baerbock, for example, said in her speech at the Portuguese ambassadors' conference in Lisbon: "Putin only has in mind to destroy Ukraine" - and emphasized the continued need for arms supplies to Kyiv.

    In her speech at the Portuguese Ambassadors' Conference, she called on the West to continue to stand close and in solidarity with Ukraine in 2023.

    Because: "If you remain neutral in a situation of injustice, then you are not helping the victim, but standing by the oppressor." The desire for peace in 2023 is great, but as long as Russia attacks Ukraine itself on the holidays,

    is that an attack on humanity.

    That is why we must stand by Ukraine as long as it is necessary.

  • National security strategy:

    "The past few months have shown that European security is not set in stone," Baerbock said in her speech in Portugal.

    For this reason, Germany is developing a national security strategy for the first time so that "not to repeat the mistakes of the past, as in dealing with Russia," says Baerbock.

    The central points of the new strategy are defence, energy supply, trade, cyber defence, the fight against the climate crisis, global supply chains, the protection of infrastructure and drug safety.

    Because: "If we are not able to provide our citizens with medicines, for example, we obviously have a problem," emphasized the Green politician.

  • climate crisis:

    Scenes of ice and snow like from the film "The Day After Tomorrow" in North America and summer temperatures at New Year's Day in Europe clearly highlight the climate crisis.

    For Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the topic has always been a core concern, and so she brought international climate policy from the Ministry of the Environment to her ministry, where climate protection is now one of the heart of the Baerbock agenda.

    Since then, the Greens politician has acted as the German chief negotiator at the UN climate conferences – most recently in Sharm El Sheikh.

    Because the COP27 in Egypt did not bring about a breakthrough in new climate targets, eyes are now turning to the upcoming COP28 in autumn 2023 in Dubai.

    The 1.5 degree target agreed in the Paris climate agreement is in danger of failing;

    it depends now

    to at least reach the minimum target of two degrees of global warming.

    Greater heating would significantly worsen living conditions on Earth.

    "The climate crisis is one of the greatest security risks of our time," emphasized Baerbock during her stay in Lisbon.

    "Our goal of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent is more important than ever," said the Foreign Minister.

Annalena Baerbock in Portugal: These global challenges will determine the year 2023

  • Critical raw materials:

    According to Baerbock, the supply of critical raw materials represents a major challenge. Dependencies on countries such as China are a risk.

    This is not only about oil or gas for energy security, but also about minerals that are needed for the high-tech sector or the energy transition.

    Lithium, for example, or metals such as cobalt or nickel, plus lithium and the rare earths found in many electronic components.

    Such raw materials should be kept in large quantities in warehouses in the future, according to the end of 2022 to the

    mirror

    Leaked China strategy of the Federal Foreign Office.

    Europe either does not have these raw materials under its own soil - or gave up mining years ago.

    The largest cobalt deposits are in the huge crisis-ridden Congo.

    The EU gave up the mining of rare earths many years ago for cost and environmental reasons.

    The overwhelming majority of these specialty materials are currently mined and processed in China.

    The Foreign Ministry would like to fight its way out of such a dependency on individual countries - especially since many of the resource-rich states are precisely those that place little value on democratic values.

  • System competition:

    Shortly after taking office, US President Joe Biden invited to a conference of democratic states.

    Since then, the USA has been driving a debate about the rivalry of systems and values, in which the EU and Germany are also increasingly taking part.

    Above all, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine shows how fatal dependencies on an authoritarian state are.

    For years, the Federal Republic in particular depended on the Kremlin's oil and gas drip.

    And China's human rights situation shows how much politicians and business people have to bend to make good profits.

    Baerbock also made it clear in Lisbon: "We are experiencing a systemic competition between those who maintain the international order and international laws and those who want to abolish them."

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  • China:

    "China is our partner and rival at the same time," said Baerbock at the press conference in Lisbon on Wednesday.

    "We don't want to disconnect, but we don't want to repeat the mistakes we made with Russia," Green said.

    Because the fact is: The old foreign policy approach “change through trade” that applied to China has been proven wrong since 2022 at the latest.

    Trade with China exploded, but there was no political change in the People's Republic.

    Today, head of state Xi Jinping is sticking with Russia, at least verbally.

    And the Chinese striving for the status of a global superpower will also make world politics more difficult in 2023: With growing self-confidence, China is increasingly taking little account of its interests.

    Attempts to intimidate the democratically governed Taiwan,

    that Beijing claims for itself is becoming increasingly fierce.

    In recent years, China has systematically distanced itself from international law and the rules for fair competition,” said Baerbock

    Table.Media

    .

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-01-05

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