Germany's Merz says erosion of global order means middle powers in Europe and Asia must be more assertive
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During a visit to Singapore, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Europe and Germany want to increase free trade with open competition, reliability and a rules-based order.
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This blog is now closed. Below is a roundup of the top stories in Germany on Tuesday, October 27, 2026: Don't want to miss our real-time updates?
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Click here to add us as a Preferred Source on Google. On the first day of his farewell tour in China, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged the German business community to act with confidence in the Chinese market.
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"When you travel in China, you're amazed at how highly Germany and German technology are still valued here," he said in Hefei.
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"That's why we can act with confidence in these markets." Steinmeier did not bring any companies with him to China as part of his delegation, as his final trip was intended to focus on culture and science.
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Nevertheless, the first day of the trip in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province, revolved primarily around the economy.
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Steinmeier visited the Volkswagen China Technology Company (VCTC). About three years ago, Europe's largest automaker opened a research center for electric mobility there, which today employs 3,000 people. Johannes Volkmann, a lawmaker accompanying Steinmeier in China, warned that the German economy must not "lose its leadership in innovation."
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"I'm taking this call to action with me from here to do more to improve competitive conditions at home," he said, adding that Germany must avoid creating new dependencies "by allowing innovation and value creation to take place only outside Europe."
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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Steinmeier called for Europe to reposition itself and reorganize its economic instruments with its growing trade deficit with China in mind.
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"The trade surplus that China is accumulating naturally causes us concern because the successful model of economic cooperation is becoming unbalanced," he said.
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"We must strive to ensure that economic cooperation does not come to an end, but that it continues — to the mutual benefit of both sides."
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Germany's trade deficit with China amounted to just under €90 billion ($100 billion) in 2025. According to the Federal Statistical Office, China exported goods worth €170.6 billion to Germany, and German exports to China amounted to €81.3 billion.
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Across the 27-member EU, the deficit amounted to almost €197 billion in the first half of 2026, according to EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic. Additional reporting by Rosalia Romaniec in Hefei.
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A German court denied a defense request to end the trial of a former Ukrainian army officer who stands accused of sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
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Serhii Kuznietsov, 50, went on trial this month at the Hamburg state court, charged with causing an explosion, damaging property, disrupting public services and being an "accomplice to war crimes" by attacking civilian infrastructure.
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Prosecutors accuse him of being the ringleader of the destruction, considered one of Europe's biggest acts of post-World War II sabotage.
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He is alleged to have carried out the explosions together with six others.
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His lawyers said the charges should be dismissed, arguing that, as a former soldier, Kuznietsov was obligated by Ukrainian law not to speak for national security reasons and could face severe penalties in Ukraine if he did. They argued that, under German law, anyone who cannot speak on his or her own behalf cannot be convicted.
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The Hamburg court ruled Kuznietsov's defense was not limited under German law and that freedom to testify is not limited by a foreign country's conditions of service. The undersea explosions on September 26, 2022, damaged the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which brought Russian natural gas to Germany until Moscow cut off supplies in August 2022.
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The blasts also damaged the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which never went into service.
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Germany suspended the pipeline's certification process shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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Italian authorities detained Kuznietsov last year. He was publicly named in extradition proceedings that led to his transfer to Germany in November.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denied allegations that his country was involved in the pipeline blasts. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video German carmaker Mercedes-Benz has cut its forecast for 2026, with difficult market conditions in China and higher fourth-quarter cost expectations set to negatively impact profits, the company said on Tuesday.
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Markets were quick to take note of the announcement, and Mercedes shares dropped 3.4% in trading on Tuesday morning.
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The move makes Mercedes the third big German carmaker to lower its outlook for 2026 after BMW and VW took similar steps.
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Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius has called on German employees to work more without pay while also expanding manufacturing operations in Hungary, where he said costs are about 70% lower than in Germany.
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Mercedes currently expects an adjusted car profit margin of 2% to 3% in 2026, compared to the 3% to 5% in the previous guidance.
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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Like many German automakers, Mercedes has faced weak sales in China.
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German carmakers have struggled in the world's largest car market with sluggish demand and increased competition from local manufacturers.
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Mercedes vehicle deliveries in China — last year already at their lowest level since 2016 — fell a further 29% in the nine months to the end of September.
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Mercedes also released third-quarter figures earlier than planned, which showed that the company generated just €172 million ($191 million) in free cash flow from its vehicle business, down on the €422 million forecast by financial market experts.
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Before interest and tax, Mercedes posted an operating profit of €1.77 billion — more than double the €750 million recorded a year earlier, according to the preliminary figures. But last year's stats were significantly impacted by one-time expenses, especially related to job cuts and legal disputes.
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Adjusted for one-off items, the operating profit margin in the passenger car business stood at 2.5%, down on the 4.8% recorded a year earlier.
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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The German agency responsible for finding a final repository for nuclear waste (BGE) has eliminated five states from its search.
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Berlin, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony and Saarland were deemed unsuitable for long-term radioactive waste storage. In a report issued Tuesday, the BGE said it had limited its search to 5% of Germany, down from 25% in 2025.
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The federal agency aims to suggest suitable locations for final evaluation by the end of 2027.
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Regions in northern, northwestern, southern and eastern Germany remain under consideration as locations for final storage facilities.
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Germany's nuclear waste is currently stored in 16 above-ground interim storage facilities.
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The BGE assessments evaluate regions' geological conditions and their ability to safely contain highly radioactive material.
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Granite, salt, and clay are generally considered potentially suitable types of rock and areas with damaged or compromised subsurface conditions, places with mines or volcanos have been active, are not eligible as final disposal sites. Germany needs to find a repository for approximately 27,000 cubic meters of highly radioactive nuclear waste generated over more than 60 years of nuclear power generation.
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The site is expected to ensure safety for 1 million years.
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The last German nuclear power plants were decommissioned in April 2023.
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BGE said its goal remains finding the site that offers the highest level of safety for highly radioactive waste. The agency's recommendations, however, are not legally binding and it will be up to German lawmakers to determine the final disposal site.
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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Convicted right-wing terrorist Beate Zschäpe's request for early release from prison was denied with a court ruling that she would remain behind bars for at least nine more years. Munich's Higher Regional Court on Tuesday set her minimum term at at least 24 years and refused to suspend the sentence to probation. By determining her guilt to be particularly severe, the court effectively ruled out her release after 15 years, which, including her time in pretrial detention, would have expired this year.
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The Munich court said Zschäpe, currently 51, still had a good chance of leaving prison alive.
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The decision is not yet legally binding, and the defense and the Federal Prosecutor's Office can appeal.
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Zschäpe had been sentenced to life in prison in 2018 as an accomplice in the National Socialist Underground (NSU) murders that killed 10 people, mainly individuals with an immigrant background as well as a police officer.
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The terror group went undetected for a decade.
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Zschäpe's fellow NSU members, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, injured several people with bomb attacks in Cologne and killed themselves to avoid arrest in 2011. Under normal conditions, a convict who receives a life sentence in Germany can apply for parole after 15 years.
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Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane has won football's most prestigious individual prize, beating Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal.
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Kane has developed even more in the Bundesliga despite an uneven league.
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German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, along with his counterparts from France, Italy, Poland and the UK, authored an op-ed calling Russia "the most acute and long-term threat to Euro-Atlantic security and stability."
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In the article, published online and in Tuesday's Tagesspiegel newspaper, the defense ministers wrote they "share a deep conviction" that European countries need to do more to ensure their own security and aim to build "a stronger Europe within a stronger NATO." The ministers, however, added that the United States would remain an "indispensable ally."
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The pronouncement comes as many in Europe are wary of US President Donald Trump's commitment to the NATO military alliance.
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The US leader has threatened to leave the group and to seize control of Greenland, a territory of fellow NATO member Denmark. US presidents have repeatedly called for European NATO members to contribute more to the alliance's military capabilities.
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As US support for Ukraine also appears to waver, the five defense ministers reiterated their political, military and financial support for Kyiv as it fights of Russia's full-scale invasion.
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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In Singapore, to start a four-day business-oriented trip that will also bring him to Japan and South Korea, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said it was up to European and Asian nations to find their spot amid a changing global order.
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"We must assert our interests in an international environment shaped by renewed great-power rivalry," Merz said.
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With a view to unpredictable tariffs imposed by the United States under President Donald Trump and trade restrictions from China, Merz emphasized the stability offered by Germany and the rest of Europe.
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"This is a deliberate counterpoint to what we are currently seeing. We want to do things differently, and we want to show that there is a better way," Merz said, adding that Europe sought to expand partnerships to increase free trade with open competition, reliability and a rules-based order.
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He also called for increased international investment and cooperation.
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"Under the federal government I lead, investment opportunities will be continuously improved," Merz said following a meeting with Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
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"I encounter a great deal of confidence here in Germany and in Europe as locations for investment."
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The German leader called for a new free-trade agreement between the 27-member European Union and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), comprising 12 countries across five continents, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
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Neither the United States nor China is part of the CPTPP.
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For his part, Wong said investment in Germany and Europe would continue. "Many of our investors, including our sovereign wealth funds, have been investing in Germany for a long time," Wong said.
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"They will continue to invest because they are confident that, in the long term, Germany and Europe have potential."
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Merz and Wong agreed their nations would work to expand cooperation in security and defense as well as trade, investment, sustainable energy and artificial intelligence. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Guten Morgen and welcome to our daily coverage of what's making news in Germany.
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While we follow the news here in Berlin and Bonn, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is in Singapore, speaking about international cooperation among middle-power countries in Europe and Asia amid a "renewed great-power rivalry." Today, we're also expecting a decision on whether to proceed with a case against a Nord Stream sabotage suspect and a report on Germany's ongoing search for a nuclear waste storage facility.
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Not to mention a car ramming last night near the northern German city of Hannover that has left several people with serious injuries, while the suspects are still on the run.
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