NEW DELHI/BERLIN (own report) – Germany’s power struggles with China, Russia and, to limited extent, the United States form the context of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s current talks in India. Merz is keen to strengthen German trade with India and promote German investment in the Indian economy. On the one hand, this move is intended to create an alternative to German business with China and to strengthen New Delhi’s standing vis-à-vis Beijing. On the other hand, Berlin is promoting German arms exports, not only to increase sales for Germany’s arms manufacturers but also to reduce the share of Russian military equipment in use by the Indian armed forces. So far, however, the West has failed to break Moscow’s influence in New Delhi – not even on a military level. Both countries continue to conduct joint military exercises, most recently in October 2025 in India (‘Indra-2025’). Merz and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are now negotiating a deal to supply German submarines worth seven billion euros. Efforts to achieving deeper economic relations are intended to make both countries less dependent on the United States now that Washington is seriously damaging both Germany and India with its tariffs and other repressive measures. Read more

WASHINGTON/BERLIN (own report) – The German government remains largely silent on the Trump administration’s violent global rampage. As Washington commits an increasing number of crimes against foreign states, Bonn remains silent and even signals partial approval. The US president made it clear last week that he does not consider himself bound by international law, only by his “own morality”. Trump made this statement after initiating military strikes on Venezuela and the abduction of its president. He is now threatening an oil blockade against Cuba and a second war of aggression against Iran. As for Cuba, Trump would find it amusing to appoint US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as Cuban president – thus turning the country into a US protectorate. At the same time, he is calling for a massive increase in the United States’ military budget – up by two-thirds to 1.5 trillion US dollars. That would amount to around 55 per cent of all global military spending in 2024. Washington’s unrestrained acts of aggression against foreign countries are the equivalent, on the international level, of those frequent incidents of mass killings across the United States by weaponised individuals running amok and causing consternation and horror. Yet Berlin still won’t call it out. The German government continues to describe the situation in Venezuela as legally “complex”. Indeed, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is now calling for the West to “stand together” against Iran. Read more

BERLIN/WASHINGTON (own report) – Leading AfD foreign policy figures are endorsing the Trump administration’s policy of military force against Venezuela. By backing the line adopted by senior Christian Democrats, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz himself, the far-right ‘Alternative für Deutschland’ is widening the common ground shared by the parties and enabling a future coalition. AfD leaders had already demonstrated a clear desire for closer transatlantic cooperation in their many visits to the United States. They have repeatedly met with figures from the Trump administration and the MAGA movement. The AfD understands that support for US policy is indispensable to any role in a future German government. Back in the autumn we saw members of the CDU, CSU and AfD, along with conservative and far-right members of the European Parliament from other countries, voting together to bring down the so-called “cordon sanitaire”. A serious precedent was thus set by the joint push to dispense with any “firewall” against extremism in European politics. The Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy explicitly promotes the inclusion of far-right parties in government coalitions across Europe. The AfD, with its acceptance of the Washington’s blatant policy of violence against Venezuela, can now distinguish itself as a party that, in the words of an expert from the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), is “aligning the country and the continent to a new order”. Read more

BERLIN/WASHINGTON/CARACAS (our own report) – The German government has started the new year with a declaration of political and ideological bankruptcy. While Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been loudly insisting on sanctions against Russia for its “war of aggression” against Ukraine, he sees nothing reprehensible in the US war of aggression against Venezuela and the abduction of its elected president. Merz claims the “legal assessment” of the US invasion is “complex”. With its weasel words the German government, already facing international criticism for double standards, is losing even more credibility worldwide. Berlin has further isolated itself from the countries of the Global South. African countries, among others, have issued sharply critical, and factually correct, statements in response to the US strikes on Venezuela. They condemn the violations of international law. As the Ghanaian Foreign Ministry, for example, points out, President Trump’s announcement that the US would “run” Venezuela until further notice is “reminiscent of the colonial and imperialist era” and that “such colonial ambitions should have no place” in the modern era. Berlin, by contrast, has unhesitatingly sided with Washington. Read more

LONDON german-foreign-policy.com spoke with Alex Gordon about the growing resistance of British trade unions to the current arms build-up and the threat of war. Gordon was president of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), the largest rail and transport union in the United Kingdom, from 2010 to 2012 and again from 2022 to 2024. He is also a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which has been campaigning against nuclear armament since its foundation in 1957. At the end of May, RMT and CND published the Alternative Defence Review, a counter-model to the Strategic Defence Review, the British government's central foreign and military policy strategy paper. The Alternative Defence Review has contributed to a change of course among British trade unions, which shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine supported the arms build-up enforced by the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Today, they have taken a clear stand against the diversion of huge amounts of public money away from the workers and towards the arms industry. Read more

BUDAPEST/BERLIN (own report) – Hungary as a production location has become a key player in Europe’s automotive and battery value chain. The ailing German car manufacturers face the prospect of Chinese competition emerging for the first time from within the EU. While Hungary’s automotive industry has long been dominated by German car manufacturers, the country is now also attracting companies from China. Major Chinese investment, initially focused on battery production, is part of a wider strategy: the new plants are being built primarily in the vicinity of German production facilities. These supplies have already developed well-established relationships with Germany’s automotive groups. Chinese battery manufacturers are linking into industrial structures built up in Hungary over decades-long German corporate presence, which was attracted by government incentives to locate eastwards. So Hungary, having become an industrial hub within Europe, is strengthening its position, in the short term at least, by adding value for German companies in particular. In the meantime, however, BYD is building a major plant in Hungary, becoming the first Chinese carmaker to begin vehicle assembly in Europe. This investment represents a significant expansion of China’s presence. In the medium term, it means that the crisis-ridden German automotive industry will face tougher competition from within the EU. Read more

BERLIN (own report) – The economic crisis in Germany is enabling a growing number of takeovers of German companies by foreign investors. On the one hand, Germany’s major corporations are in trouble while, on the other, industry is currently facing a wave of insolvencies above all among once resilient Mittelstand, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Just recently, the plastics and chemicals group Covestro became the first DAX-listed company to be swallowed up by a corporation from the Gulf States. Adnoc, from the United Arab Emirates, made its move back in October 2024. Among others, Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com is currently securing a majority stake in German electronics retailer Ceconomy (Media Markt, Saturn). JD.com has taken control in order to compete with Amazon and Alibaba in European markets. Chinese sports brand Anta Sports Products is considering the acquisition of Germany’s legacy brand Puma. Meanwhile, talks are continuing about the possible takeover of ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe (TKSE), Germany’s largest steel manufacturer, by the Indian steel giant Jindal Steel International. Czech and Polish investors are also emerging as buyers, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. A growing number of German SMEs are threatened with bankruptcy. Germany has become the main target in the EU for foreign takeovers. Read more