German Chancellor Friedrich Merz began a five-day tour of Asia on Monday, arriving first in Singapore before planned stops in Japan and South Korea. He is traveling with a delegation of 30 senior business figures drawn from German industry, technology, defense and energy supply.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is visiting China at the same time. The two trips are not officially linked, but both appear designed to strengthen Berlin's economic and security relationships while geopolitical instability threatens global supply chains.
In Singapore, Merz is expected to give a major foreign policy speech and meet Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. On Wednesday he is due in 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. That effort began under 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 islands or other territorial claims would badly disrupt global trade, including for Germany. He said the two countries face different primary threats, with Germany focused on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but believes Berlin has moved closer to Takaichi's view of the China risk.
Ascione added that Japan would welcome German military deployments in the region. The frigate Bayern became the first German Navy warship to dock in Tokyo in 20 years in May 2021 and held air and maritime exercises with Japanese units. In July 2024, German Eurofighter Typhoon jets flew air drills with Japanese fighters over northern Japan. Merz and Takaichi are expected to discuss supply chain resilience, protecting strategic industries and securing access to technologies and components such as rare earths, which China still largely controls.
Merz will then travel to South Korea, where he is to meet President Lee Jae-myung and open the 19th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business in Seoul. Saeme Kim, a research fellow at The Asan Institute for Policy Studies, expects security to dominate the talks. She said the chancellor could raise concerns about Seoul's outreach to North Korea and, indirectly, Russia, noting recent discussion of petroleum exports to Russia, which Seoul says did not breach sanctions.
Kim said South Korea is trying to set up a channel of communication with Pyongyang even though Kim Jong Un's regime has sent troops to the war in Ukraine. "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. South Korea also continues to provide humanitarian aid to the North.
Merz could also draw on Germany's 1990 reunification when discussing inter-Korean relations, though Kim cautioned that the situations differ, since the two Koreas are technically still at war. He is scheduled to visit the Demilitarized Zone, but that stop could be canceled because of lingering tensions over a North Korean mine that injured three South Korean soldiers last month. Pyongyang has accused the South of staging the incident.