Author: Stefan Talmon

Published: 29 October 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

The Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland have maintained diplomatic relations at embassy level since 14 September 1972. According to the German Federal Foreign Office, “German-Polish relations are of great importance for both sides. […] Shared interests in many areas and the two countries’ close partnership in the European Union [EU] and NATO provide a sound basis for the future.” The two countries’ economies are closely interlinked and Germany is Poland’s most important trading partner by far. The Polish Government described relations with Germany as follows: (more…)

Published: 26 October 2020; Revised: 30 October 2020 Authors: Stefan Talmon and Philip Wimmer

On 4 May 2019, King Maha Vajiralongkorn formally ascended to the throne of Thailand. The King, however, lives in Germany for most of the year. He stays with his household in a hotel in the Bavarian Alps. In 2020, protests broke out against the Thai Government. The student-led protest movement also took issue with the King’s residence and extravagant lifestyle in Germany while the country was suffering from the severe consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and demanded reforms of the monarchy. With the protest movement in Thailand growing, questions were raised in the German Federal Parliament about the King engaging in domestic politics from German soil. (more…)

Published: 20 October 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

At least since 2018, Germany has repeatedly expressed concern over the human rights situation in Xinjiang, which has triggered strong rebukes from China. However, this did not prevent Germany from continuing to raise the human rights situation in China’s autonomous region in various UN bodies throughout 2020. On 30 June 2020, Germany signed up to a joint statement by 28 mainly western States at the 44^th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) which read in the relevant part: (more…)

Published: 15 October 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwest China is the country’s largest administrative region, making up one sixth of Chinese territory. The region was first officially named “Xinjiang” – which literally means “New Borderlands” – and given the status of a provincial administrative area by the Chinese Emperor in 1764. It borders Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Its geographic location gives it a strategic position in Central Asia. In recent years, oil and mineral reserves have been found in Xinjiang which make it China’s largest natural gas-producing region. With only some 25 million inhabitants, it is sparsely populated. The region’s native population is the Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking mainly Muslim ethnic group, which is culturally and ethnically close to other Central Asian nations. Initially the predominant majority population, today it makes up only some 45 percent of the inhabitants. Over time, more and more Han Chinese moved to the region, who today account for at least 40 percent of the population. The rest is made up by several other, smaller ethnic groups. This has led to inter-ethnic tensions. (more…)

Published: 12 October 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

The more than three-decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh gained renewed international attention when, at the end of September 2020, fierce fighting broke out along the Line of Contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. On 29 September 2020, after speaking with the Armenian Prime Minister and the Azerbaijani President, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urgently called for an immediate ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table. Germany also pushed for the conflict to be discussed under “any other business” in a closed UN Security Council meeting of the same day. During the meeting, the German representative stated: “We believe that conflict resolution in this case must be based on the Helsinki-Principles of non-use of force, territorial integrity and self-determination, and on the Madrid Principles.” (more…)

Published: 05 October 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

In early July 2020, members of the media noticed that, unlike with all other countries and territories, including China’s special administrative region of Hong Kong, there was no flag depicted under the entry for “Taiwan” on the country information pages on the Federal Foreign Office’s website. This gave rise to – unsubstantiated – claims that the flag had been removed and replaced with a blank white rectangular banner. A reporter asked the Federal Foreign Office whether the white rectangular image under the heading “Taiwan” could be interpreted as Germany having raised the white flag in surrender to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). (more…)

Published: 02 October 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

Throughout the year, Germany makes numerous statements on international law. Not all these statements form part of a case study presented on GPIL. However, these statements may nevertheless be of interest to international lawyers. We therefore compile these statements on a monthly basis. (more…)

Published: 24 September 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

Over the years, there have been a number of heated debates on the Middle East conflict at the United Nations. However, the exchange in the Security Council on 23 July 2019 between the Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations, Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, and the Assistant to the U.S. President and Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason D. Greenblatt, should be remembered not just for the two countries’ different approaches to the Middle East peace process, but also, and more importantly, for their different outlooks on international law. (more…)

Published: 21 September 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

The debate about the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland’s announcement in the House of Commons on 8 September 2020 that the UK Internal Market Bill would “break international law in a very specific and limited way” has unearthed some notable examples of breaches of international law by other States. One little known such breach concerned Germany’s disregard for the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (the IMF Treaty) and the so-called “Smithsonian Agreement” in March 1973. The breach was admitted in a private meeting only in 1978 and became known to the general public only some 30 years later when the transcript of the meeting was declassified. (more…)

Published: 27 July 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

Throughout the year, Germany makes numerous statements on international law. Not all these statements form part of a case study presented on GPIL. However, these statements may nevertheless be of interest to international lawyers. We therefore compile these statements on a monthly basis. (more…)