Crisis in Ukraine: Olaf Solz in the US today

“The point is to prevent a war in Europe,” said Chancellor Olaf Solz. Russia and with a look at the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, stressed that “nothing is ruled out.”

“My journey is coming at just the right time,” Soltz said Sunday night in an interview with German public television channel ARD, which was filmed in the official hall of Berlin airport in front of the government building. aircraft that would take him to Washington. At 11:30 (local time), Mr. Soltz will cross the White House for the first time as Chancellor, and the main item on the agenda could not be other than the crisis in Ukraine. “It is certain that US President Joe Biden will recall him,” Der Spiegel magazine wrote yesterday, referring to the criticism leveled at Olaf Solz for his oligarchy and cautiousness towards Russia. Inside, the opposition also sharply criticized the “delay” of the new Chancellor to meet with the US President, but also with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. “The journey is well prepared. One does not go there just to drink coffee, but to pursue a real, tough, important policy, which in this case takes place in a state of serious crisis. The point is to prevent a war in Europe. “, said Mr. Solts.

Asked if possible sanctions could include the suspension of Nord Stream 2, the chancellor, who had previously backed Angela Merkel’s government, said extensive sanctions were being discussed. “if that becomes necessary”, but, as he said, the issue is to prevent sanctions. “However, we have considered all the measures and nothing is ruled out,” he added.

Olaf Solz is going to Washington while a serious international crisis is raging, which inevitably revealed significant differences of opinion. According to German media, Joe Biden had invited the new German Chancellor as early as January, but Berlin rejected the invitation, either because a consensus had not yet been formed within the ruling coalition or because what the US President would not ask him to do. could be easily accepted. Hundreds of ironic comments were posted on social media with the hashtag # πουειναίοΟλαφ: “Someone has to tell Soltz that he has been set to silent mode”, was one of the most popular comments on German Twitter. The opposition, as well as some of NATO allies, at the same time expressed their annoyance at Germany’s “reluctance” to help Ukraine by supplying arms.

At the same time, Mr. Soltz’s position was obviously not facilitated by the public statements of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who, as an executive of Rosneft and soon Gazprom, Nord Stream 1 and 2, showed understanding for the Kremlin’s concerns, while called on Ukraine to “stop sharpening its swords”.

The chancellor, in an effort to amuse the negative impressions of the recent period – the new ARD poll puts the Christian Union (CDU / CSU) ahead, while his and his government’s popularity plummeted – appeared on television last week and announced his visit to the US, as well as his upcoming trips to Moscow and Kiev, next week. He stressed that Germany does not deliver weapons to crisis areas, something with which, as he said, the majority of Germans agree, but highlighted the financial assistance it has in Kiev, “the largest of all European countries.”

However, according to the deputy director of the Berlin office of the German Marshall Plan, Sunda David-Willip, Olaf Solz will be called upon to assure Joe Biden that he is on his side. “The point is that Soltz can’t go (to Washington) empty-handed. The status quo needs to change. Instead of being too low-key, as his style is, he needs to go to Washington with a clear message that “Germany is with the United States and the Western Alliance on Ukraine,” David Willipp told Deutsche Welle. Germany’s partnership with the United States, “but Berlin’s inaction at the moment refutes all foreign policy, which the government claims is based on values.” silent and very difficult to interpret as to his real intentions in this crisis, added the American analyst.

The Social Democrats (SPD)’s foreign policy chief Nils Schmidt dismissed the criticism, saying “Olaf Soltz is a loyal Atlanticist and our American friends know it, so it’s just a meeting of friends.” In the same vein, Michael Wertz, a German researcher at the Washington Center for American Progress, told DW that, unlike his predecessor, Mr. Solz has to “give” the US President a more political and less economic view of China. , mainly with regard to human rights. Respectively, the current German government has common positions with the USA on many issues related to climate policy.

For some, a Social Democrat chancellor, with a significant part of his party to Willy Bradt’s “Ostpolitik” supporters and Vladimir Putin’s supporters, may be more useful as a mediator in Russia. But the only thing that is certain is that, no matter how much Olaf Solz does not want it, Germany will be called upon to play a central role in this crisis – and its Chancellor will now be called upon more and more urgently to take a stand.

SOURCE: AMPE