UNDER A SECOND INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENT
Birgit Jennen, Alexander Pearson and Arne Delfs
Sun., February 27, 2022,
(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced plans for a massive boost in defense spending in the latest historic policy shift in Germany triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Germany will channel 100 billion euros ($113 billion) this year into a fund to modernize the military, Scholz said Sunday in a speech to a special session of the lower house of parliament. By 2024, the government will spend at least 2% of gross domestic product each year on defense, he added, in line with a NATO target that Berlin has consistently failed to meet.
Scholz had been widely criticized by opponents and allies alike in recent weeks for what they perceived as dithering and weakness in the face of Russia’s mounting aggression toward Ukraine. In the past few days he has announced a series of radical changes to long-entrenched German policies following the full-scale attack ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the former Soviet republic.
Even before the invasion, Scholz halted the certification process for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline built to bring more of the Russian gas his country heavily relies on. On Saturday, he abandoned Germany’s traditional rejection of supplying weapons to conflict zones and gave way on expelling Russian banks from SWIFT, the system used for trillions of dollars worth of transactions between thousands of banks around the world. The willingness to supply Ukraine with military equipment including surface-to-air missiles and anti-tank weapons is in many ways the most dramatic move.
Such a wide-ranging rethink from Scholz and his government came unexpectedly and prompted suggestions that Europe’s biggest economy may finally be ready to punch its weight in the international arena, discarding decades of reluctance linked to its role in the 20th century’s bloodiest conflicts. Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, who was in parliament Sunday, called it a “truly historic moment.”
“With the invasion of Ukraine, we are in a new era,” Scholz, the Social Democrat who took over from Angela Merkel in December, told lawmakers. “On Thursday, President Putin created a new reality with his invasion of Ukraine. This new reality requires a clear response. We have given it.”
German defense spending in recent years has been hovering at around 1.5% and actually declined slightly as a share of output last year, according to NATO figures.
That has led to criticism that the armed forces are consistently underfunded. Germany has reduced the number of its battle tanks to 300 from 4,700 since 1989 and the number of warplanes to 230 from 390, according to a report in Der Spiegel magazine. The number of troops has dropped to 180,000 from more than 300,000.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, signaled Sunday in his speech to parliament that the party is ready to work with the ruling coalition on agreeing the financing for the defense fund.
As well as ramping up defense spending, Scholz also pledged to do more to protect energy supplies, including increasing gas-storage volume by 2 billion cubic meters, establishing a national coal and gas reserve and swiftly constructing two LNG terminals on the north coast.
There are signs public opinion is firmly behind the chancellor and his two partners in the ruling coalition -- the Greens, who control the foreign and economy ministries, and the business-friendly Free Democrats, who run the finance ministry.
About 100,000 people streamed through the Brandenburg Gate to the central Tiergarten park Sunday for a demonstration in support of Ukraine, according to police estimates. Authorities had expected as many as 20,000. Many had Ukrainian flags and banners calling on Putin to stop the war.
Johannes Boie, the editor in chief of influential tabloid Bild, published an editorial entitled “Germany Delivers!” in which he praised the government’s decision to supply Ukraine with weapons.
“Our country owes its prosperity, its happiness, to the fact that the Allies once erased our own mass-murdering dictator from the map,” Boie wrote.
“Today the government took a first step,” he added. “Slowly, hesitantly, but still. Keep it up - even faster! Even braver!”
While Scholz looks to have set aside his preference for circumspection and prudence, at least for the time being, his calm, careful approach has often stood in recent weeks in stark contrast to the two senior Green Party ministers in his government.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, who is the economy minister and vice chancellor, have been far more outspoken about the need to confront Russia, particularly on issues like Nord Stream 2.
Scholz also had to overcome a degree of reluctance to punish Russia within his own Social Democratic party, which has a long history of sympathy toward Moscow.
Baerbock said Sunday that now is the “right moment” for Germany to make what she called a “180-degree turn in foreign policy.”
“If our world is different, then our politics must also be different,” she said in a speech to the special session of parliament.
“Perhaps it is the case that Germany is today leaving behind a form of special restraint in foreign and security policy,” she added. “In choosing between war and peace -- in choosing between an aggressor and children who have to hide from bombs in subways -- no one can be neutral.”
Birgit Jennen, Alexander Pearson and Arne Delfs
Sun., February 27, 2022,
(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced plans for a massive boost in defense spending in the latest historic policy shift in Germany triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Germany will channel 100 billion euros ($113 billion) this year into a fund to modernize the military, Scholz said Sunday in a speech to a special session of the lower house of parliament. By 2024, the government will spend at least 2% of gross domestic product each year on defense, he added, in line with a NATO target that Berlin has consistently failed to meet.
Scholz had been widely criticized by opponents and allies alike in recent weeks for what they perceived as dithering and weakness in the face of Russia’s mounting aggression toward Ukraine. In the past few days he has announced a series of radical changes to long-entrenched German policies following the full-scale attack ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the former Soviet republic.
Even before the invasion, Scholz halted the certification process for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline built to bring more of the Russian gas his country heavily relies on. On Saturday, he abandoned Germany’s traditional rejection of supplying weapons to conflict zones and gave way on expelling Russian banks from SWIFT, the system used for trillions of dollars worth of transactions between thousands of banks around the world. The willingness to supply Ukraine with military equipment including surface-to-air missiles and anti-tank weapons is in many ways the most dramatic move.
Such a wide-ranging rethink from Scholz and his government came unexpectedly and prompted suggestions that Europe’s biggest economy may finally be ready to punch its weight in the international arena, discarding decades of reluctance linked to its role in the 20th century’s bloodiest conflicts. Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, who was in parliament Sunday, called it a “truly historic moment.”
“With the invasion of Ukraine, we are in a new era,” Scholz, the Social Democrat who took over from Angela Merkel in December, told lawmakers. “On Thursday, President Putin created a new reality with his invasion of Ukraine. This new reality requires a clear response. We have given it.”
German defense spending in recent years has been hovering at around 1.5% and actually declined slightly as a share of output last year, according to NATO figures.
That has led to criticism that the armed forces are consistently underfunded. Germany has reduced the number of its battle tanks to 300 from 4,700 since 1989 and the number of warplanes to 230 from 390, according to a report in Der Spiegel magazine. The number of troops has dropped to 180,000 from more than 300,000.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, signaled Sunday in his speech to parliament that the party is ready to work with the ruling coalition on agreeing the financing for the defense fund.
As well as ramping up defense spending, Scholz also pledged to do more to protect energy supplies, including increasing gas-storage volume by 2 billion cubic meters, establishing a national coal and gas reserve and swiftly constructing two LNG terminals on the north coast.
There are signs public opinion is firmly behind the chancellor and his two partners in the ruling coalition -- the Greens, who control the foreign and economy ministries, and the business-friendly Free Democrats, who run the finance ministry.
About 100,000 people streamed through the Brandenburg Gate to the central Tiergarten park Sunday for a demonstration in support of Ukraine, according to police estimates. Authorities had expected as many as 20,000. Many had Ukrainian flags and banners calling on Putin to stop the war.
Johannes Boie, the editor in chief of influential tabloid Bild, published an editorial entitled “Germany Delivers!” in which he praised the government’s decision to supply Ukraine with weapons.
“Our country owes its prosperity, its happiness, to the fact that the Allies once erased our own mass-murdering dictator from the map,” Boie wrote.
“Today the government took a first step,” he added. “Slowly, hesitantly, but still. Keep it up - even faster! Even braver!”
While Scholz looks to have set aside his preference for circumspection and prudence, at least for the time being, his calm, careful approach has often stood in recent weeks in stark contrast to the two senior Green Party ministers in his government.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, who is the economy minister and vice chancellor, have been far more outspoken about the need to confront Russia, particularly on issues like Nord Stream 2.
Scholz also had to overcome a degree of reluctance to punish Russia within his own Social Democratic party, which has a long history of sympathy toward Moscow.
Baerbock said Sunday that now is the “right moment” for Germany to make what she called a “180-degree turn in foreign policy.”
“If our world is different, then our politics must also be different,” she said in a speech to the special session of parliament.
“Perhaps it is the case that Germany is today leaving behind a form of special restraint in foreign and security policy,” she added. “In choosing between war and peace -- in choosing between an aggressor and children who have to hide from bombs in subways -- no one can be neutral.”
Germany’s move to help arm Ukraine signals historic shift
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS
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By EMILY SCHULTHEIS
1 of 7
A woman shows a peace sign in front of a Russian WWII tank at the Soviet War Memorial at the bolevard 'Strasse des 17. Juni' alongside a rally against Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
VIENNA (AP) — Germany’s stunning decision to send anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine — abandoning its long-held refusal to export weapons to conflict zones — is nothing less than a historic break with its post-World War II foreign policy.
“A new reality,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it in an uncharacteristically rousing speech Sunday to a special session of parliament. The typically low-key Chancellor Scholz said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine required a dramatically different response from Germany than in the past.
“With his invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, President Putin created a new reality,” Scholz told the Bundestag, his speech repeatedly greeted by applause, particularly his condemnations of the Russian leader. “This reality demands a clear answer. We’ve given one.”
Scholz said Germany is sending anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. He also said the country is committing 100 billion euros ($113 billion) to a special fund for its armed forces and will raise its defense spending above 2 percent of GDP, a measure on which it had long lagged.
Germany’s about-face served as a potent example of just how fundamentally Russia’s war in Ukraine is reshaping Europe’s post-World War II security policy.
Germany’s foreign policy has long been characterized by a strong aversion to the use of military force, an approach German politicians explain as rooted in its history of military aggression against its neighbors during the 20th century.
While a strong U.S. ally and NATO member, post-war Germany has attempted to maintain good ties with Moscow, a policy also driven by business interests and Germany’s energy needs.
“Many of the things that Olaf Scholz said would have been unthinkable even months ago,” said Marcel Dirsus, a nonresident fellow at the University of Kiel’s Institute for Security Policy. “It’s become very clear that Russia has simply gone too far, and as a result, Germany is now waking up.”
Still, until this weekend, the German government had balked at sending weapons to Ukraine, even as it faced growing international criticism for its hesitation.
But then, a series of announcements starting Saturday evening rocked traditional notions of German policy.
It began with word from the government that it would allow the shipment of 400 German-made anti-tank weapons from the Netherlands to Ukraine, something it had thus far refused to do.
Shortly afterwards, the chancellor’s office went further and said it would send its own weapons, including 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 “Stinger” surface-to-air missiles, directly to Ukraine. It also committed to targeted bans on Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial system, which German leaders had expressed reluctance to do.
On Sunday, the breaks with the past continued, with Scholz committing to greater defense spending.
The developments were all the more notable considering they followed another historic decision last week, when Germany took steps to halt the process of certifying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia.
Germany’s reluctance to send German-made weapons to Ukraine had earned the country criticism from NATO allies in recent weeks. Although Germany is one of the world’s top weapons exporters — it exported arms worth 9.35 billion euros in 2021 — it has long had a policy of not sending lethal weapons to conflict zones. Until Saturday, German leaders had refused to send anything other than 5,000 helmets to aid Ukraine.
Scholz’s Sunday announcement about defense spending will, at least for the time being, put to rest the oft-repeated criticism that Germany is not adequately contributing to its own and NATO’s defense.
The country was a favorite target of former U.S. President Donald Trump for its failure to spend 2 percent of its GDP on defense, a target for NATO members. According to NATO figures, Berlin spent around 1.53 percent of GDP in 2021, or almost $65 billion. Its budget has grown annually for several years.
In balking at new spending, Berlin always insisted that Germany was investing enough to fulfill any NATO military requirements. Officials also noted that by spending that kind of money, Berlin’s defense budget would surpass that of Russia, and possibly make its own European neighbors nervous.
NATO countries slashed their military budgets in the 1990s after the Cold War, but they were spurred back into action when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. That year, the allies pledged to halt the cuts and move toward spending 2 percent of GDP by 2024.
German officials backed up their policy U-turn by calling it a necessary adjustment to a new normal.
“We cannot leave Ukraine defenseless against the aggressor who is bringing death and devastation to this country,” Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister, said Sunday. “If our world is different, then our politics must be different as well.”
The decisions were met with praise by many of the Ukrainian leaders and European allies that had been most critical of Germany in recent weeks.
“Keep it up, Chancellor @OlafScholz!” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted Saturday night after the news of weapons shipments. “Anti-war coalition in action!”
___
Lorne Cook contributed from Brussels. Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.
VIENNA (AP) — Germany’s stunning decision to send anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine — abandoning its long-held refusal to export weapons to conflict zones — is nothing less than a historic break with its post-World War II foreign policy.
“A new reality,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it in an uncharacteristically rousing speech Sunday to a special session of parliament. The typically low-key Chancellor Scholz said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine required a dramatically different response from Germany than in the past.
“With his invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, President Putin created a new reality,” Scholz told the Bundestag, his speech repeatedly greeted by applause, particularly his condemnations of the Russian leader. “This reality demands a clear answer. We’ve given one.”
Scholz said Germany is sending anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. He also said the country is committing 100 billion euros ($113 billion) to a special fund for its armed forces and will raise its defense spending above 2 percent of GDP, a measure on which it had long lagged.
Germany’s about-face served as a potent example of just how fundamentally Russia’s war in Ukraine is reshaping Europe’s post-World War II security policy.
Germany’s foreign policy has long been characterized by a strong aversion to the use of military force, an approach German politicians explain as rooted in its history of military aggression against its neighbors during the 20th century.
While a strong U.S. ally and NATO member, post-war Germany has attempted to maintain good ties with Moscow, a policy also driven by business interests and Germany’s energy needs.
“Many of the things that Olaf Scholz said would have been unthinkable even months ago,” said Marcel Dirsus, a nonresident fellow at the University of Kiel’s Institute for Security Policy. “It’s become very clear that Russia has simply gone too far, and as a result, Germany is now waking up.”
Still, until this weekend, the German government had balked at sending weapons to Ukraine, even as it faced growing international criticism for its hesitation.
But then, a series of announcements starting Saturday evening rocked traditional notions of German policy.
It began with word from the government that it would allow the shipment of 400 German-made anti-tank weapons from the Netherlands to Ukraine, something it had thus far refused to do.
Shortly afterwards, the chancellor’s office went further and said it would send its own weapons, including 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 “Stinger” surface-to-air missiles, directly to Ukraine. It also committed to targeted bans on Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial system, which German leaders had expressed reluctance to do.
On Sunday, the breaks with the past continued, with Scholz committing to greater defense spending.
The developments were all the more notable considering they followed another historic decision last week, when Germany took steps to halt the process of certifying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia.
Germany’s reluctance to send German-made weapons to Ukraine had earned the country criticism from NATO allies in recent weeks. Although Germany is one of the world’s top weapons exporters — it exported arms worth 9.35 billion euros in 2021 — it has long had a policy of not sending lethal weapons to conflict zones. Until Saturday, German leaders had refused to send anything other than 5,000 helmets to aid Ukraine.
Scholz’s Sunday announcement about defense spending will, at least for the time being, put to rest the oft-repeated criticism that Germany is not adequately contributing to its own and NATO’s defense.
The country was a favorite target of former U.S. President Donald Trump for its failure to spend 2 percent of its GDP on defense, a target for NATO members. According to NATO figures, Berlin spent around 1.53 percent of GDP in 2021, or almost $65 billion. Its budget has grown annually for several years.
In balking at new spending, Berlin always insisted that Germany was investing enough to fulfill any NATO military requirements. Officials also noted that by spending that kind of money, Berlin’s defense budget would surpass that of Russia, and possibly make its own European neighbors nervous.
NATO countries slashed their military budgets in the 1990s after the Cold War, but they were spurred back into action when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. That year, the allies pledged to halt the cuts and move toward spending 2 percent of GDP by 2024.
German officials backed up their policy U-turn by calling it a necessary adjustment to a new normal.
“We cannot leave Ukraine defenseless against the aggressor who is bringing death and devastation to this country,” Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister, said Sunday. “If our world is different, then our politics must be different as well.”
The decisions were met with praise by many of the Ukrainian leaders and European allies that had been most critical of Germany in recent weeks.
“Keep it up, Chancellor @OlafScholz!” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted Saturday night after the news of weapons shipments. “Anti-war coalition in action!”
___
Lorne Cook contributed from Brussels. Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.
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