The first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is also one year since the historic speech Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave in the German Bundestag on February 27, 2022. He then announced a watershed moment that turned foreign and security policy 180 degrees and redefined the role of Europe’s largest economy in the world. On Thursday, Scholz took stock of a year of war in Ukraine and its consequences for Germany, but he also wanted to send a clear signal to China, Moscow’s main partner: “Use your influence to push for the withdrawal of Russian troops. Do not give weapons to the aggressor Russia,” he stressed in a speech to the Bundestag.
The foreign minister stressed Ukraine’s sovereignty and rejected calls to begin peace talks at this point in the conflict and when there are no signs that Vladimir Putin is ready to negotiate. No “peace can be dictated against the will of the victims,” he noted. Scholz acknowledges that a peace without the Ukraine deal would be a mistake not only “for moral reasons”, but also for the “good” of Germany and the security of Europe and the world. It would be “a fatal incentive for the attacker if the violation of international law and the European peace order is rewarded,” he stressed.
The chancellor criticized, without directly naming them, the protests against the supply of arms to Ukraine, led by the two extremes of the German Bundestag, the radical left and the extreme right, which recently gathered more than 10,000 people in the capital: “Peace they will here in Berlin shouting ‘No more war’ and at the same time demanding that all arms supplies to Ukraine be stopped. “If Ukraine stopped defending itself, it would not be peace, but the end of Ukraine. The love of peace does not mean submission to a greater neighbor.”
Scholz reiterated the 2% of GDP defense target announced by NATO a year ago, while also pledging an extraordinary fund of €100 billion for the modernization of the Bundeswehr. That promise was the most tangible part of his decisive speech, but it takes a while to materialize. Both nationally and internationally, the critical voices about the speed of time change are becoming louder and louder. “The chancellor has promised changes, but they are accelerating,” said the British magazine The Economist last week.
“We are ending the abandonment of our armed forces. This results in the special fund for the Bundeswehr, for which I thank the largest opposition party,” he underlined, referring to the CDU and its chairman Friedrich Merz, who voted for the 100 billion euros. But the opposition also strikes Scholz with a pace of change in the Bundeswehr, a highly bureaucratic organization with an aversion to change that several of its commanders have said would be unable to defend Germany in the event of a stroke. A year ago, the chancellor promised an increase in defense spending in the federal budget and, as he said Thursday, “the promise is firm”. It’s a “permanent” raise, he specified.
But what is needed now is that the special fund be spent effectively and quickly to improve the condition of the army as quickly as possible. “A year of change turned into a year of wasted time,” Alexander Dobrindt, chairman of the CSU parliamentary group, told him in the ensuing debate. “The defense budget is $300 million short for 2022,” Merz criticized, insisting that only $600 million of the $100 billion was actually spent. “The industry is waiting for orders that don’t come,” he says.
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Scholz tiptoed through the Bundeswehr, where he came out for the last third of the speech and where he has already spoken for 19 minutes. He pledged to help the defense industry establish “continuous production of essential arms, equipment and ammunition” and reiterated that his government will provide the “long-term contracts and initial payments” that are “necessary to develop production capacity”. A few weeks ago, the Scholz board clashed with German arms manufacturers with mixed allegations of a lack of initiative. The companies made it clear that they would not produce without orders.
The chancellor will travel to Washington at the last minute this Thursday to meet US President Joe Biden. Leaders will discuss the situation in Ukraine and further support to Kiev. The meeting will be atypical because this time Scholz will not arrive with a large delegation or with German journalists. A subsequent press conference is also not planned, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which reports that the chancellor wants a private and silent meeting.
Source: La Neta Neta
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
