The member states of the European Union need to join forces to withstand competition from South Korea and China, German Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said in Hangzhou on Sunday.
Speaking at the end of a four-day visit to East Asia, Habeck said the concept "competition, and in the toughest sense" had caught up with him repeatedly during the trip, both in South Korea and in China.
"I believe we have to confront this competition. Germany also uses this word 'competition' in other words negligence, laziness, lethargy, sluggishness are not an alternative," Habeck said.
But he also cautioned against going to extremes. Cooperation was also needed, and this meant not seeing others as opponents or even enemies, but rather developing understanding for each other and strengthening each other.
The world was readying itself for competition, with major nations having a precise plan on where they would be in the decades ahead. They were also preparing the financial resources and putting robust foreign policies in place to implement their plans, he said.
The EU had to compete with these nations. "And Europe does not have this plan to an adequate extent," Habeck said. The EU was entering a new era in which it had to become aware of this competition and draw the consequences.
The EU had to become a global actor, he said. Habeck was speaking in response to a question regarding the ongoing debate about Germany's budget next year.
"Trips like this have value at least in that one assimilates the perspectives of other countries and at best can set impulses to arrive at a policy of cooperation," Habeck said.
