Gov't Presents First National Security Strategy

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock have just concluded presenting Germany's first National Security Strategy. A number of main headlines from the Strategy are hitting wires:

• On China the Strategy document states that: 'China is increasingly pressuring regional stability and disrespecting human rights...Rivalry with China has increased in past years as it seeks to change the existing international rules-based order in different ways....China uses its economic weight to reach political goals...China remains a partner without which [we] cannot solve the many global challenges.'
• On Russia the document says: 'Today's Russia is the biggest threat to peace in the Euro-Atlantic area for the foreseeable future...Russia is trying to destabilise Europe's democratic societies, weaken EU and NATO.'
• On geopolitics: 'We are living in an age of growing multipolarity and systemic rivalry...Some states are trying to undermining the international order and promote their revisionist ideas of spheres of influence...These states are trying to exert illegitimate influence on political processes, public discourse and elections...Germany must work closer with the international community to counter these hybrid threats.'
• Noah Barkin at Rhodium Group: "As expected, Germany's new national security strategy doesn't contain any surprises on China. It uses the 4-year-old "partner, competitor, systemic rival" formulation to describe the relationship, while making clear that competitor & rival aspects have become more important.[...] We can expect more detail in the China strategy, which now looks likely to be released in early July."