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.