Henry Kissinger (stock image from April 2019)
Photo: Jaime R Carrero / REUTERS
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has expressed understanding for Germany's difficulties in finding its role in Europe in the wake of the Ukraine war.
"Given history, it is not an easy task for Germany to assume a leadership role in Europe based on being the strongest military power," Kissinger told journalists in London on Monday, whom he was connected to via video conference.
"I feel for the German government given the task they have set themselves and that they have not been able to rush into something that is so different from previous tasks with a ready-made plan," said the now 99-year-old US statesman.
Important role also in reconstruction of Ukraine
Germany will play a very important role in creating the new Europe that is now emerging, Kissinger said.
This applies both to the security of Europe against the threat of further Russian aggression and to the reconstruction of Ukraine.
"That will require Marshall Plan-style support," he added.
Among other things, Germany was accused of being too hesitant to support Ukraine with weapons in the fight against Russia.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos in May, Kissinger had suggested Ukraine should cede Crimea, annexed in 2014, to Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sharply rejected suggestions that the government in Kyiv should make territorial concessions to Russia to end the war.
Kissinger shaped US foreign policy for nearly a decade from the late 1960s, first as national security adviser, then as secretary of state.
He comes from a German-Jewish family and had to flee Germany from the Nazis in 1938.
ngo/dpa