Ministers in Africa

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has called on the nations of east African nations to do more to tackle piracy.

Westerwelle said that the threat posed to global free trade by piracy had to be eradicated, adding that Germany would do what it could to help.

At the beginning of a short tour of Africa, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle met Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and other leading government figures on Thursday.

On the issue of piracy, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said that the attacking of ships along Africa’s east coast had caused a "continental crisis of immense economic damage."

Westerwelle echoed suggestions that more African nations put suspected pirates, mainly from Somalia, on trial.

There has been a rapid rise in piracy off the coast of Somalia, where chaos since 1991 has left the country with no effective government.

Accompanying the foreign minister on his tour is German Development Minister Dirk Niebel. Niebel confirmed that Tanzania, a former German colony, would continue to receive 10 million euros ($13.4 million) in budget support each year from Germany.

A further 8.5 million euros payment was also pledged in health education aid to promote AIDS prevention and family planning.

Continent with problems

Westerwelle and Development Aid Minister Dirk Niebel also visited projects funded by German aid money in Tanzania.

"Africa is a neighboring continent, and we all know that there are a lot of problems," Westerwelle told Deutsche Welle ahead of the visit. But he said there are also many opportunities Germany does not want to miss out on.

Later on Thursday, the two ministers were due to fly to South Africa, the second leg of their visit, before wrapping up their trip with a visit to Djibouti on Sunday.

Westerwelle, who heads the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Niebel, a senior FDP official, said in a statement ahead of the trip that it demonstrated their alliance to shape foreign and aid policy "in the same mold."

The party had previously unsuccessfully pressed Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition to merge the foreign and development aid ministries into one; the FDP had criticized the two ministries as often not pulling in the same direction.

Coordination instead of competition

"What we can't do is have the foreign minister visit a capital on Monday and the development aid minister is there on Thursday, and they both send out different signals," Niebel said.

While an increase in development aid funds for Africa has led to a host of new ties and partnerships with various German ministries, there has often enough been a lack of coordination on the German side in the past.

Niebel said cooperation between the two ministries had improved radically. He stressed the efficiency of having maintained two separate ministries that deal with international relations.

Common interests

The German government is working on a coordinated concept for African policies with a focus on topics rather than on regions.

Marina Schuster, one of the project's initiators and a FDP member of parliament, said she is convinced that a clear-cut concept is in both sides' interest.

"We have common interests, for example concerning climate change and biodiversity."

She added: "We share an interest in preventing the emergence in eastern Africa of states that are security policy risks - not just for Africa."

Partnership

The ministers' joint Africa trip is a not only a public demonstration of coordinated action, but also a step toward demonstrating that Germany does not regard Africa merely as a recipient of aid but as an independent and responsible partner.

Tanzania, the German politicians' first stop, is already a reliable partner in development cooperation. South Africa is German industry's most important African partner.

The last stop is Djibouti, which borders Somalia. The German navy has deployed soldiers off the coast of Somalia within the framework of Enduring Freedom, the military operation fighting piracy in the region.

Ute Schaeffer (db)/rc/dpa/AP/AFP

Editor: Kyle James