In Singapore on Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for closer economic partnership between Europe and Asian “middle powers” such as Japan and South Korea to counteract the failing global order. Singapore was the first stop on his five-day tour, which will include Japan and South Korea.

Merz proposed greater partnership between the EU and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

• This trade agreement was signed in 2016 by Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam in Asia, and Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The U.S. withdrew the following year, but the other nations have continued.
• If the European Union joins, the agreement could involve as much as one third of global trade.

Germany’s long-term goal, Merz stated, is a free-trade agreement between the EU and the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

• To Merz, a trade alliance with Asia is about Germany’s survival. “Our freedom, our sovereignty, our security and our prosperity are at stake,” he stated.

Merz claims that European and Asian nations can build a “new stable trade order” that is better equipped to “respond in a coordinated manner to violations of free and fair trade”—a slight against recent American trade policies as well as against long-standing Chinese trade practices.

• If the EU, Japan and South Korea work together, Merz claims they could become comparable to the U.S. in “knowledge, capacities, capabilities.”
• This is an anti-American partnership.

Germany also wants to make deals with the largest economy in Asia and perhaps the world.

• German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is also visiting China and has called on German businesses to retain confidence in China.
• While in Singapore, Merz said that “decoupling” from China would be a “big mistake.”

Isaiah 23 warns that a German-led European superpower will temporarily join a gigantic trade alliance with key Asian powers to economically besiege the United States and British Commonwealth. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote about the prophetic implications of this relationship:

[W]e believe there may be a brief alliance between the German-led Holy Roman Empire and certain Asian powers (Russia, China, Japan—the kings of the east). Should Europe, the resurrected Holy Roman Empire, find a way to take advantage—even for a moment—of key resources and strategic holdings of China, Russia and Japan, it would have more than enough power to besiege the Anglo-Saxon nations and enslave them.

Such comments from a German chancellor are a sign that this enormous alliance is forming now.