ATHENS/BERLIN, Oct. 27 (DPA/EP) –
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has defended a Chinese company’s controversial investment in a container terminal in the port city of Hamburg, hailing it as the “right solution”.
The German Executive authorized on Wednesday the participation of about 25 percent of the Chinese shipping company Cosco in one of the port’s terminals, a decision that has sparked criticism at a time when Berlin has opted to review its economic relationship with Beijing to avoid depending on the Asian giant.
Speaking to the press from the Greek capital, Athens, where he met with the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Scholz defended that the Executive’s decision is in the right line, since the percentage of investment allowed to the Chinese company it is relatively small.
It is true that the chancellor has recognized the legitimate concern of those who consider that German infrastructures should not be under external influence, although he has defended that this “does not happen in this case at all”.
Scholz, who plans to travel to China, has recently advocated reducing the dependence that Germany may have on the Asian giant in order to prevent a situation like the one experienced with Russia from occurring again and the submission to a large part of the European powers in energetic matter.
