BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany wants to help countries that are rich in critical minerals such as Chile, Indonesia and Namibia to build their own processing infrastructure to cut dependency on China, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday.
Berlin is trying to rebalance its relationship with China and reduce reliance on Asia’s powerhouse for key inputs, such as nickel and other critical minerals.
“If we succeed in locating more processing steps where the raw materials are in the ground, then that will not only create greater local prosperity … we will ensure that we have more than just one supplier in the future,” Scholz said in a speech at Germany’s industrial trade fair Hannover Messe.
Scholz said he supported a free trade agreement between the European Union and Indonesia, which the two parties have been negotiating since 2016.
“I am committed to ensuring that we finally get this agreement across the finish line now,” he said, adding that geopolitical developments in Europe and in Asia argued for similar deals with other countries such as Mexico and Australia, Kenya and India.
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Andreas Rinke; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
