Overview

• Johann Wadephul used public remarks in Tokyo to criticize China’s behaviour in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas as “increasingly aggressive.”
• He warned that Beijing’s attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo imperil fundamental principles of global coexistence and risk disrupting international trade and security.
• Wadephul accused China of sustaining Russia’s war in Ukraine by serving as its largest supplier of dual-use goods to Russia and its top purchaser of Russian oil and gas.
• Germany and Japan committed to deepen cooperation in defending democratic norms and enforcing a rules-based international order.
• A recent encounter near Scarborough Shoal, where the Chinese military drove away a U.S. destroyer, underscored escalating regional tensions and bolstered calls for binding maritime rules.