The worsening Ukraine crisis is likely to be one of the focal points of the first international talks by the new Foreign Minister Baerbock. But climate policy is not neglected either.
Germany’s new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is starting a series of inaugural visits to Europe in Paris today.
In the morning (8 a.m.) the Green politician met her French colleague Jean-Yves Le Drian. Then Baerbock wanted to travel on to Brussels by train. Talks were planned there with the EU foreign affairs officer Josep Borrell, the US climate protection officer John Kerry and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
On Friday, Baerbock is flying to Warsaw to meet her Polish colleague Zbigniew Rau.
Baerbock begins her talks on the international stage against the background of a worsening crisis in Ukraine. US President Joe Biden and his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin had not achieved any relaxation at their roughly two-hour video summit on Tuesday. The US has been accusing Russia of deploying troops not far from the border with Ukraine for weeks. A Russian invasion of the ex-Soviet republic is feared in the West. Russia rejects this and accuses Ukraine of having deployed more than 120,000 soldiers on the line to the areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
At the beginning of her trip, Baerbock emphasized the reliability of the foreign policy of the new traffic light government of the SPD, Greens and FDP. “Our partners in the European Union can rely on the new federal government from day one. Europe is the linchpin for our foreign policy. “
Dispute in the EU
A prerequisite for a strong and united Europe is “that we as the EU take our basic values seriously and enforce the rules that we have jointly set for ourselves,” warned Baerbock. “Especially when it comes to the rule of law and human rights, we cannot allow Europe’s foundations to crumble,” she said, without mentioning countries like Hungary or Poland.
In the EU there has been a dispute with the governments of Hungary and Poland for years because, as evidenced by a number of court rulings, they do not comply with EU law. Critics accuse Warsaw and Budapest of influencing the judiciary contrary to EU standards. Poland’s national-conservative PiS government is restructuring the judicial system. The EU Commission has opened infringement proceedings against the government in Warsaw because of the reforms.
The aim of Baerbock’s inaugural visits
In view of Baerbock’s clear words on the rule of law, the visit to Poland in particular could be tricky. Against the background of the Ukraine crisis, the new federal government is also coming under pressure from the USA because of the controversial Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2. From Warsaw, too, the demands are likely to get louder not to put the gas pipe between Russia and Germany into operation.
Above all, during the inaugural visits, she wanted to listen to her closest partners, emphasized Baerbock at the beginning of her trip. “We will not pursue our ideas and interests over the heads of our neighbors, and certainly not at their expense.” Was that intended as a sign in connection with Nord Stream 2 in the direction of Warsaw?
From day one, she will give international climate policy “the place it deserves on the diplomatic agenda: right at the top,” Baerbock continued. The most important task of diplomacy is to prevent crises, contain them and solve them as best as possible. “And no crisis is more threatening for the future of mankind than the climate crisis.” She also wants to talk to the European partners about “how we can strengthen our climate partnerships with other regions of the world”.
Source From: Stern
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