German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has stressed the importance of free transit along global sea lanes, saying his government’s foreign and security policy will continue to prioritise it, Al Jazeera reports.

“For an industrial and trading nation like Germany, the unrestricted use of global sea lanes, and indeed maritime security, is a prerequisite for a successful economy,” Merz has said at a national maritime conference in the city of Emden.

“We are seeing these days that when geopolitical tensions cause maritime bottlenecks, the global economy is hit, and we are hit where we are most vulnerable,” he observes, adding that the latest developments have once again shown the close interrelationship between economic and security policy.

“We are living in an era of fundamental global realignment. Security and competitiveness are two sides of the same coin,” Merz says.

“How quickly we make progress in both areas at the same time will determine how well, how freely, and how prosperously we will live in Germany in the 21st century.”