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Ukraine and Russia: What Annalena Baerbock should clarify on her trip to Kiev and Moscow

2022-01-16T17:00:23.190Z


Before the foreign minister's first visits to Kiev and Moscow, the FDP hopes to be tougher on Russia. However, the coalition is not unanimous on this – Nord Stream 2 also remains a topic of conflict.


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Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock

Photo: CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON / EPA

Before Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's inaugural visit to Ukraine and Russia, the FDP urged her to be more tough.

Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin "only understands crystal clear announcements - including the possible consequences," said FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann.

The mood is tense: Russian soldiers are marching up on the border with Ukraine, and Russia and the West have recently been unable to mend their difficult relationship.

On Friday, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov demanded a written guarantee from NATO that it would stop its eastward expansion.

He wants to prevent Ukraine from joining the alliance.

more on the subject

  • The West in the Ukraine Crisis: Treating Putin as an Adversary – Not as a PartnerDer SPIEGEL editorial by Maximilian Popp

  • Visit to Kiev and Moscow: FDP urges Baerbock to be tough on Russia

According to a spokesman, Baerbock wants to try to revive the Normandy format during her visit. Germany and France are negotiating with Russia and Ukraine. Green foreign politician Jürgen Trittin, however, already dampened the demands for the meeting in advance: »The foreign minister is on a difficult mission and I warn against exaggerated expectations. Annalena Baerbock will represent the German and European position very clearly in Kiev and in Moscow.«

Baerbock is scheduled to fly to Ukraine on Monday, where she will speak to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kiev and promise Ukraine support in view of the Russian troop deployment at the border.

She is scheduled to continue her journey in Russia on Monday evening.

There she will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday.

The fact that the Baerbock plan leads first to Ukraine and then to Russia is seen as a sign of support for Ukraine.

Here is a summary of the conflicts that the Baerbock traffic light government had to deal with on its journey:

Dispute over dealings with Russia

"There is no split in the coalition," declared SPD faction leader Rolf Mützenich in a recent interview on the Ampel government's foreign policy towards Russia.

The signals from the parties can sometimes be interpreted differently.

The chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, summed up the problem in a tweet on Sunday.

After FDP defense politician Strack-Zimmermann had made her demands of the foreign minister, he asked whether there was a clear coalition position towards Russia that could impress Moscow.

"Yes," wrote FDP defense politician Alexander Lambsdorff on Twitter.

"Any military aggression against Ukraine will have far-reaching and painful economic consequences for Russia."

Green politician Jürgen Trittin also told SPIEGEL: »Any further military aggression against Ukraine will have serious political and economic consequences for Russia.

The break with the rest of Europe would be deep and the long-term consequences for Russia would be fatal.”

From the SPD, however, the whole thing sounds a little less clear.

  • There is parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich, who "can understand mentally" that Russia feels restricted, as he recently told the "taz".

  • There are outsider opinions, such as that of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Minister of Agriculture, Till Backhaus (SPD), who recently went so far as to consider bringing Russia closer to the European Union through EU accession.

  • And there is also the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, Michael Roth (SPD), who also recommends that Baerbock be tough when dealing with Russia.

    "It's important to adopt a conciliatory tone and to stay cool when provoked," he told the editorial network Germany.

But what exactly does that mean?

Scramble for Nord Stream 2

The topic of Nord Stream 2 shows how vague these statements are. The SPD has declared the gas pipeline to be a “private-sector project”.

SPD politicians had recently suggested that the gas pipeline should not be mixed up with the Ukraine conflict.

For example, SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert said the pipeline had nothing to do with the Russian deployment on the Ukrainian border, and that the issue had to be left behind.

»But everything in me resists conflicts being talked about in order to be able to bury projects that have always been a thorn in my side«.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig is also considered a major supporter of the project.

When SPD Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht recently called for tougher dealings with Russia in a Bundestag debate, she left out the topic of Nord Stream 2.

The Greens, on the other hand, also see a geopolitical dimension in Nord Stream 2 – and question the project.

Agnieszka Brugger, a defense politician and deputy leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, has repeatedly stated that it would be wrong to rule out an end to the pipeline in the event of a Russian attack on Ukraine.

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck had also made it clear that there should be "no bans on thinking" in this regard.

Arms deliveries to Ukraine

Ukraine has been demanding arms deliveries from Germany for years. The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin recently repeated this demand to the Green Party politician Baerbock. The German attitude to arms deliveries is "very frustrating and bitter," said Andrij Melnyk of the German Press Agency. The world is "currently facing the greatest danger of a huge war in the middle of Europe, the worst since 1945," the ambassador continued. The people of Ukraine have the "sacred right to self-defense."

Baerbock has so far spoken out against it, and arms deliveries to crisis regions are also excluded in the traffic light coalition agreement.

However, the Green Party leader and current Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said during a visit to Ukraine in May 2021 that Germany could hardly deny the country "defensive weapons".

Green foreign politician Trittin now emphasized his support for Ukraine »Another violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity will not go unanswered.

But the trust between partners also includes the truth that this conflict could not be solved by supplying arms to a war zone.«

Mfh

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-01-16

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