German Foreign Policy.com Newsletter 2007/09/03 - Driving Force
BERLIN/SINGAPORE (Own report) - With the objective of better
structuring its Asia policy, the German foreign ministry convened a
four-day conference of all the heads of German missions abroad, which
opened on September 3 in the presence of the secretary-general of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Ten Southeast Asian
countries - most of them competitors or political adversaries of the
Peoples Republic of China - are members of the ASEAN economic
alliance. The ambassadors conference in Berlin will also hear a talk
given by the German ambassador to Singapore. The city-state Singapore
is the driving force of the ASEAN group and Germany's most important
economic base in the region. Singapore's army is heavily equipped with
offensive weapons and Germany has been supplying arms for decades.
According to the German defense minister, Germany and Singapore are
"natural partners" in military policy. This Southeast Asian country's
government is striving intensely for closer EU relations - against
Beijing.
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