Germany’s dealings with Russia have long been naïve – that applies to both politics and business.
(Photo: imago images/Michael Gstettenbauer)
Dusseldorf There is often talk these days of a historical turning point, of the fact that history was divided into a before and an after by Russia’s attack on Ukraine. And this caesura can also be felt in Germany.
Rarely has a federal government given up so many beliefs and principles as it did last Sunday: Germany wants to invest billions in rearmament, deliver weapons to Ukraine – the nuclear phase-out is also up for debate. Even the otherwise sober Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks of a “turning point”.
He’s right: what we’re witnessing is nothing less than a turning away from a naïve German foreign policy. For years, Vladimir Putin has carried out his threats again and again: he had members of the opposition poisoned, waged wars, pushed borders.
Only in Germany did the top political and economic personnel refuse to accept this. In this respect, the country has also made itself complicit in the tragedy in Ukraine.
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“It is now the task of the traffic light government to open a strategic discourse on Germany’s role in the world,” says historian August Heinrich Winkler in the Handelsblatt. “Above all, about widespread, illusionary ideas of a German mediator role between East and West.”
This debate must go well beyond military spending. It’s about a new self-image. Our weekend title, which my colleague Jens Münchrath wrote with Handelsblatt correspondents from all over the world, is about Germany’s new role – and the consequences of the Ukraine war for the world order.
Russia plunges Europe into an identity crisis
Russia plunges Europe into an identity crisis. The old continent is experiencing a breaking of old certainties, is experiencing its own vulnerability – and is facing a new beginning: strategically, geopolitically and also militarily.
The pictures from Kyiv tear your heart apart. How Russia’s Cruel Military Machines Are Killing Innocent Civilians. How young men and women defend their country against the overwhelming Russian army with Molotov cocktails. How courageous Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky encourages his compatriots.
They all also defend our values in a hopeless struggle. In fact, China has a key role to play in this war. A few hours after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Beatrix People’s Republic backed Putin.
Sebastian Matthes is Handelsblatt Editor-in-Chief.
(Photo: Max Brunert for Handelsblatt)
The historian Niall Ferguson is certain that Putin had his war approved in Beijing beforehand. You have to know that the ties between the two countries have been getting closer and closer for years – that’s another fact that German foreign policy didn’t want to see.
In 2015 Moscow and Beijing decided to set up a Eurasian Economic Union, Russia supports Xi Jinping’s Silk Road Initiative, which was only significantly expanded again in 2018 with Beijing’s “Arctic Silk Road”. And for years, Russia has been exporting more and more goods, especially raw materials, gas and oil, to China.
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As early as 2001, China also founded the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization”, allegedly to promote economic and strategic projects. In reality it is a kind of anti-NATO. In addition to Russia, countries such as Iran and Belarus are also included – Syria has also already expressed an interest. The new best friends have also carried out joint military operations.
Germany’s dealings with Russia have long been naïve – that applies to both politics and business. The federal government, which is currently working on a new China strategy, should not repeat this mistake when dealing with China.
A new power bloc is emerging under Beijing’s leadership, uniting countries that despise many Western values. And the Ukraine war is accelerating this splitting of the world into two parts. This is bad news for the German economy, which is linked to both China and the USA like no other. Because a neutral, mediating position in the middle will no longer be possible in the future.
Economists have often warned that the pandemic could slow or even reverse globalization. The opposite happened. Germany exports more than ever before all over the world. However, the now accelerated division of the world economy could make this long-feared deglobalization scenario a reality faster than many thought possible.
More: Follow the current events in the Ukraine war in the Newsblog.