Wadephul travels to Mercosur summit in Paraguay and onward to Washington

Mercosur Summit in Asunción

At the heart of the visit is the trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur states, signed in January after more than 25 years of negotiations. Since the beginning of May, the EU and the Mercosur states have formed a vast new free-trade zone. The agreement aims to boost the exchange of goods and services through the gradual reduction of trade barriers and tariffs. The deal is also seen as a challenge to the protectionist tariff policy of US President Donald Trump.

The Status of the Trade Agreement

In Germany, significant long-term opportunities are seen particularly for the automotive industry, mechanical engineering, and the pharmaceutical sector. However, the agreement can only be applied provisionally, because a narrow majority of members of the European Parliament decided in January to have the European Court of Justice review the treaty text before a final vote.

On the sidelines of the summit, Wadephul plans a meeting with Paraguayan President Santiago Peña. He also intends to meet his counterpart there, Rubén Ramírez Lezcano, Chilean President José Antonio Kast (note: Wadephul is meeting Chilean President José Antonio Kast; the counterparts mentioned are Ramírez Lezcano for Paraguay and Pérez Mackenna for Chile), as well as Chilean Foreign Minister Pérez Mackenna.

Talks with Four Governments

In doing so, the German foreign minister is seeking direct contact with four governments in the region. According to the travel dispatch, the talks in Asunción are primarily intended to politically safeguard the provisional application of the agreement and to advance parliamentary procedures in the member states.

In the second leg of the trip, Wadephul travels to Washington. There, Wadephul wanted to consult with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the afternoon on how to achieve a new burden-sharing within the alliance and stable, long-term support for Ukraine at next week's Nato summit in Ankara. "Our collective deterrence is working." "Our Euro-Atlantic security decisively depends on us standing together in Nato in the future as determinedly as we have so far," the CDU politician declared before setting off on a multi-day trip to North and South America.

Washington and the Nato Summit

Wadephul also emphasized the linkage of economic and security policy with a view to the Middle East. The Federal Foreign Minister stated that Iran's "risky strategy" around the Strait of Hormuz makes clear that security policy and economic policy cannot be separated. In doing so, he built a bridge between the trade talks in South America and the security-policy consultations in Washington.

By combining trade diplomacy with alliance policy, the German government ties together two central strands of foreign policy. The Mercosur agreement is regarded in Berlin as a long-term project aimed primarily at opening up new markets for the export economy. Coordination with the United States, in turn, is seen as urgent ahead of the Nato summit in Ankara.

Observers also see the trip as a signal to Washington that Europe is setting its own economic-policy accents. The linkage with the Trump-critical reading of the Mercosur deal points to the growing strategic importance of the South American market for the EU.

Economic and Security Policy

It remains unclear how quickly the European Court of Justice will review the treaty. Until final ratification, member states can only apply the agreement provisionally. The German government is counting on this not diminishing the political symbolic power of the agreement.

It also remains unclear what concrete commitments Wadephul will be able to bring home from Washington regarding burden-sharing in Nato and support for Ukraine. The talks with Rubio are considered preparation for the summit in Ankara, at which the German government wants to set its own accents.

Open Questions and Outlook

Overall, a trip is taking shape that closely interlinks trade-policy and security-policy issues. Wadephul appears as a representative of a German government that places its bets on reliability and a willingness to negotiate in both fields.

The trip is taking place in an international environment marked by tensions in the transatlantic relationship and, at the same time, by a deepening of European-South American relations. The Mercosur summit in Asunción provides a fitting framework.

With the planned meetings in Paraguay, Chile, and Washington, the Federal Foreign Minister combines regional diplomacy, trade policy, and alliance coordination in a single tour. The results are to feed into the coming weeks – particularly the Nato summit in Ankara.