Partners, rivals and neighbours

United States

Wadephul's main interlocutor in Washington is Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They first met on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Antalya on 15 May 2025, then at the State Department on 28 May 2025. Telephone calls on 9 May, 9 July and 1 December 2025 dealt with efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

The relationship was tested in January 2026 by the dispute over Greenland. Around 12–13 January Wadephul travelled to Washington, via Iceland, for talks with Rubio, and said he had "no indication" that US military action was being seriously considered. When President Trump threatened tariffs on eight European countries, Germany included, those countries issued a joint statement of solidarity with Denmark and Greenland. The threat was withdrawn on 21 January.

From 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel conducted strikes on Iran. Wadephul made clear that Germany would not take part in the war or in regime-change operations.

Türkiye

Fact Relations with Ankara were among the most active of the period. In mid-October 2025 the German government cleared negotiations on the sale of Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Türkiye. On 17 October Wadephul made a one-day visit to Ankara for talks with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. On 28 November 2025 he hosted Fidan in Berlin for further talks and a joint press conference.

He made the delivery conditional on a signed agreement. Türkiye also hosted the NATO summit in Ankara on 7–8 July 2026.

Other NATO partners

At the NATO summit in The Hague on 24–25 June 2025, where allies committed to spending 5% of GDP on defence and related infrastructure, Wadephul met Lithuania's foreign minister Kęstutis Budrys. The 5% figure was the one he had publicly backed in Antalya six weeks earlier — prompting a coalition row. The alliance dimension is treated fully on NATO and transatlantic relations.

Canada

During UN General Assembly week in September 2026, Wadephul took a one-day break from New York to travel to Ottawa. There, around 25 September, he joined Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand at a reception at the German ambassador's residence marking German Unity Day and 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Israel

His counterpart Gideon Sa'ar is the foreign minister he has met most often in person: in Israel on 10–11 May 2025 (alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu, with a wreath-laying at Yad Vashem), in Berlin on 5 June 2025, in Israel again on 31 July 2025, and on 10 March 2026, when Wadephul became the first European foreign minister to visit Israel after the start of the Iran war.

The relationship was strained in 2025 by his remarks rejecting "forced solidarity", his call for a review of arms exports and the partial export halt from August to November 2025. Controversies sets out the criticism in full.

The Palestinians

On his first trip he met Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa; on 1 August 2025 he met President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. His line on statehood shifted in emphasis over the summer of 2025: in June he said recognition would send "the wrong signal"; in late July he said recognition was more likely the end of the process, but that the process "must begin now". He has consistently rejected new settlements and annexation.

Iran

Germany's approach to Iran under Wadephul has run through the E3. After Israel struck Iran in June 2025, he met Abbas Araghchi in Geneva with his British and French counterparts and the EU on 20 June. In August the E3 triggered the snapback of UN sanctions. When the 2026 war began, he said Germany was "not participating in this war" and warned in Israel against chaos inside Iran that could escalate the conflict further.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Fact In June 2025 he rerouted a Middle East trip to Saudi Arabia after the Israeli strikes on Iran; whether he met Prince Faisal bin Farhan on that occasion is not documented. He did meet him in Riyadh on the evening of 11 March 2026, the last stop of his crisis tour during the Iran war.

With the United Arab Emirates, the only verified contact is a congratulatory call from Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed after Wadephul took office in May 2025.

Syria

On 30 October 2025 he met interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in Damascus and pledged up to €52.6 million in humanitarian aid for Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. His assessment that large-scale returns of refugees were only possible to a very limited extent in the short term set off a fierce row inside the CDU/CSU. Al-Sharaa's planned visit to Berlin in January 2026 was postponed because of violence in Syria and took place on 31 March 2026.

Background

The region is not new to him. In the 18th Bundestag he was the CDU/CSU rapporteur for the Middle East, the Gulf and Iran on the Foreign Affairs Committee. According to Wikipedia, he has also served on the boards or advisory bodies of the German-Arab Friendship Society and the German-Palestinian Society; the dates of these roles are not documented.

China

Relations with Beijing were tense from the summer of 2025. Wadephul's condemnation, on 17 August, of China's "increasingly aggressive conduct" in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas drew a rebuke from Beijing's foreign ministry. In late October he postponed a planned visit because China had confirmed only a meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. When the trip went ahead on 8–9 December 2025, he met Wang Yi and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and was received by Vice President Han Zheng. Rare-earth export controls, Russia and Taiwan dominated the talks.

India

His relationship with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is one of the most regular of his term. They met in Berlin on 23 May 2025, after the Pahalgam terror attack, when Wadephul backed India's right to defend itself against terrorism and urged a bilateral India–Pakistan solution; in New Delhi on 3 September 2025, the day Wadephul also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi; and at the Munich Security Conference in February 2026, where they shared a panel and held talks Jaishankar called "productive".

Japan and Indonesia

His first Asian journey as minister, beginning on 17 August 2025, took him to Japan and Indonesia. Public attention focused largely on the China remarks he issued as he departed; the detailed daily programme is not documented in the sources consulted for this page.

South Africa

On 22–23 July 2026 he made a working visit to Pretoria at the invitation of International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola. On 24 July in Johannesburg he spoke about the Russian threat to Europe, including the Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad — an unusually direct message to deliver in a country that has kept a non-aligned stance on the war.