Norbert Röttgen, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag

Amid escalating tensions between Europe and China, Asia House will welcome one of Germany’s key foreign policy figures to discuss the state of current relations, and the likely direction of German and EU China policy.

Norbert Röttgen, as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag, is at the heart of German foreign policymaking and will be central to shaping Germany’s Asia agenda into the post-Merkel era. Against a backdrop of sanction exchanges between Europe and China – including Chinese sanctions against the German think tank MERICS – Röttgen will brief Asia House Corporate Members on the strained relations with Beijing on Wednesday 28 April.

As well as discussing the recent sanctions, which began with coordinated trans-Atlantic sanctions on Chinese individuals allegedly involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Röttgen will also cover the recently concluded EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) – a ground-breaking yet controversial trade and investment agreement that was one of the crowning achievements of Germany’s EU presidency. He will also provide an update on the European Commission’s recently published strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, and discuss the prospect of a more coordinated trans-Atlantic strategy for the region as the Biden Administration in the US reinvests in traditional alliances.

Dr Norbert Röttgen has been the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag since 2014. From 2009 to 2012, he served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. He has been a Member of the German Parliament since 1994 and has fulfilled key functions within the Christian Democratic Party. Röttgen is also a member of the Asia House Advisory Board.

This briefing is being held exclusively for Asia House Corporate Members. Find out more about Corporate Membership at Asia House.

To register interest in joining this briefing, please email Edward Danks: edward.danks@asiahouse.co.uk