Merz and Steinmeier set off separately for Asia on Monday
Germany's president begins a state visit to China, while the chancellor leaves hours later for Singapore, Japan and South Korea on his longest foreign trip in office.
Archive image · Photo: President Of Ukraine / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped and resized)
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Friedrich Merz will both travel to Asia on Monday, on separate trips. Steinmeier begins a four-day state visit to China, his second. He is scheduled to give a keynote speech at Peking University on Thursday and to meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang the following day.
According to dpa, Steinmeier plans to raise fair trade, trade imbalances and China's international role, and to urge Beijing to use its ties with Russia to help end the war in Ukraine.
Merz departs a few hours later on his longest foreign trip as chancellor so far, taking in Singapore, where he is due to give a foreign policy speech, Japan and South Korea. In South Korea he will attend the Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business and visit the border with North Korea. Travelling with a large business delegation, he aims to broaden partnerships and reduce dependencies. Government sources said the two trips were not directly linked.