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The German authorities has reached an settlement on the controversial Hamburg port deal that enables for a Chinese language state firm to purchase a stake in one of many terminals, native media reported Tuesday.
It comes simply days after an investigation by retailers NDR and WDR revealed that German chief Olaf Scholz’s chancellery tried to push the deal via regardless of considerations from a number of ministries.
The problem is politically delicate, with politicians from the Inexperienced social gathering and liberal FDP having expressed considerations about undue Chinese language affect over important infrastructure — notably after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine laid naked Europe’s vitality dependency on autocratic third nations.
Now, the federal government ministries have reached a deal: If permitted, it could enable Chinese language firm Cosco to purchase solely 24.9 % as an alternative of 35 % of the transport firm that runs the terminal, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik (HHLA), the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Monday night. As a minority shareholder, this might stop Cosco from having a proper say over technique. HHLA couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
However the compromise does not alleviate everybody’s considerations.
Svenja Hahn, a member of the European Parliament’s Renew Europe group and the German Free Democrats, mentioned the reported compromise confirmed German naivety in its dealings with China.
“Considered as an entire, it stays a critical strategic mistake to position components of important infrastructure in Chinese language arms. In any case, China has successively purchased into European ports, however excludes international possession of ports in its personal nation,” she mentioned. “This reveals that cooperation with China is just not a partnership of equals.”
Cosco already owns stakes in Europe’s two largest ports at Rotterdam and Antwerp, whereas it additionally controls the port of Piraeus in Athens and is behind a scheme to broaden an inland rail terminal at Duisburg the place the Ruhr and the Rhine rivers meet and which is a main hub for overland freight arriving from China.
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