German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday called for closer cooperation between Germany and Chile, particularly in the field of green hydrogen.
“For my country, Chile is an ideal partner for the restructuring of our energy landscape,” Steinmeier said at the opening of a German-Chilean economic conference in Santiago, noting that cooperation on green hydrogen could benefit both countries.
The president pointed to Chile’s wealth of natural resources such as lithium, which is needed to manufacture batteries and holds potential for producing green hydrogen.
Steinmeier also called for supporters of free trade to stand together and criticized the daily new calls for tariffs and increasing protectionism.
“Where are the forces that continue to place the strength of the law above the law of the strongest? Where are the forces that do not consider disorder a new principle for global restructuring? And where are the forces that still see free global trade as their goal and reject protectionism?” Steinmeier asked.
“Here in Chile, we find a partner that stands for political stability and reliability,” he said, emphasizing that these are the conditions that companies look for.
Chile is the last stop on Steinmeier’s almost week-long trip to South America, which also took him to Uruguay and Paraguay.
On Wednesday, he is due to hold talks with Chilean President Gabriel Boric in Santiago.
Other events on his agenda in Chile included a visit to the German School and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago.
The museum is dedicated to the victims of the military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990. During this time, there were around 3,000 political murders and more than 30,000 political prisoners in Chile.
Steinmeier also met with those affected by, and experts on, the subject of Colonia Dignidad.
The German lay preacher Paul Schäfer moved with his followers from Germany to Chile in the early 1960s and founded a settlement near the city of Parral. For decades, he made the cult members work there without pay until they were exhausted, tore families apart and abused German and Chilean children.
During the military dictatorship under Pinochet, regime opponents were said to have been tortured and murdered at the settlement site.
Today, the area has been renamed Villa Baviera and, among other things, a restaurant operates there. For years, there has been a struggle over the construction of a memorial for the victims of Colonia Dignidad in Chile.
