Although six ministries have expressed concerns about the entry of the Chinese company Cosco into the port of Hamburg, the Chancellery does not put the issue on the agenda. The test period expires at the end of October and Green leader Nouripour is alienated and irritated by Scholz.
The Greens are calling on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss the possible entry of a Chinese state-owned company at a terminal in the port of Hamburg in the cabinet. "Six ministries have registered reservations," said Green co-leader Omid Nouripour in Berlin. A ban is actually a matter of course. The fact that this is not the case is strange and irritating. "The port of Hamburg is critical infrastructure." The Chancellery is responsible for the cabinet's agenda, but shouldn't make politics about it. The issue needs to be discussed.
The SPD politician Scholz said last Friday that the case had not yet been decided. "There are still many questions to be answered." The corresponding application will be carefully examined. Security interests always played a role. According to media reports, Scholz wants to make the entry possible. The Chinese shipping company Cosco wants to take a 35 percent stake in the operator of the container terminal in Tollerort.
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit also said that there was still no decision on a possible veto. "Discussions are ongoing." Should the planned entry at the terminal be blocked, there would be a decision in the cabinet. Should there be no objections, the possible deal could go through. When asked whether the entry of the Chinese with less than 25 percent would change anything, Hebestreit explained that he could not comment on individual cases. When asked about a European port strategy, he said that this was not a viable option in this specific case due to the tight schedule, but would be welcomed in principle.
The lesson from the past few months is "that critical infrastructure, and the Port of Hamburg is critical infrastructure, cannot simply be sold to another country that everyone knows is ready without any problems and without batting an eyelid to also exploit our dependency politically," said Green leader Nouripour. SPD leader Klingbeil joined the chancellery on Sunday and explained that the deal was not a sell-out in the port of Hamburg. It is "about a minority stake in a terminal" and "not about letting the Chinese into the critical infrastructure," he told Deutschlandfunk.
