Outside Europe, Kohl talks business, not politics

Outside Europe, Kohl talks business, not politics

By Andrew Gray

BONN (Reuter): Helmut Kohl may be the most influential political leader in Europe, but when he travels far beyond its shores, the veteran German chancellor means business.

Kohl, famous for his many trips and talks around Europe promoting the continent's further integration, is now touring Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan to drum up contracts for a legion of German industrialists accompanying him.

He is being received like a world leader -- for example, an audience with Japan's Emperor Akihito is scheduled in Tokyo -- but analysts say this has little to do with carving out a new world role for the Germany that united six years ago.

Kohl -- who will on Thursday become Germany's longest-serving postwar chancellor -- is more concerned about globalization than about glory, they say. This trading nation needs to win new markets for its high quality goods if it wants to stay competitive into the next century.

"This is basically an economic trip and you can see that from his entourage," foreign policy analyst Ernst-Otto Czempiel said, referring to the 56 business leaders accompanying Kohl.

The Frankfurt professor said united Germany had become more active abroad, but mostly in Europe and the Mediterranean area where it was directly concerned about political developments.

"Since the end of the East-West conflict and reunification, the German government has become much more active in those regions," Czempiel said.

Czempiel, head of the Hesse Institute for Peace and Conflict Research, said Germany shared Western concerns about arms control and political stability in southeast Asia but they were not as vital to Bonn as they were to its allies.

"They're sensible goals but they're not national interests, as they are for the United States for example," he said.

Klaus Becher of the German Society for Foreign Policy said Bonn had little political clout in such a far-off region.

"You can influence very little politically on your own," he noted. "We as a nation can promote our own industry but we are only one of several voices when it comes to political matters."

But even within this context, the united Germans find they can no longer be the "economic giant and political dwarf" that old West Germany was.

Stung by domestic criticism that he was ignoring human rights during his trip to Indonesia, Kohl tried at short notice to arrange a meeting on Monday in Jakarta with the East Timorese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Bishop Carlos Belo.

German newspapers gleefully reported that Belo turned down the invitation from the chancellor.

"What a rude awakening for Helmut Kohl in his jubilee week," clucked the Frankfurter Rundschau, which assumed Belo did not want to be used for Kohl's political purposes.

"A Nobel Peace Prize winner snubs a chancellor -- when did you ever see that happen before?" it asked.

Kohl came under fire at home last year when he became the first Western leader to visit a Chinese army barracks since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

"Helmut Kohl has perfected the art of separating human rights and economic interests," the Frankfurter Rundschau said. That appeared to be borne out on Monday when Kohl announced in Jakarta that his delegation had signed contracts worth 1.34 billion marks ($855 million) with Indonesian businessmen.

Becher said Bonn was trying to strike a balance between human rights and economic ties, pointing out that yelling about human rights was not the best way to get results in Asia.

When the German parliament passed a resolution critical of China's policy on Tibet earlier this year, a furious Beijing put off a planned China visit by Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel.

Czempiel acknowledged a quiet word can have greater effect than a public shouting match but said there was still room for improvement in Bonn's commitment to human rights.

"Kohl should have more in his luggage than 25 industrial contracts," he said.