We need new, binding security guarantees for a sustainable European security architecture”. – Sevim Dagdelen, leader of the Left Party (Die Linke) in the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, said in the context of the Russia-U.S. summit scheduled for 10 January.
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We need new, binding security guarantees for a sustainable European security architecture”. – Sevim Dagdelen, leader of the Left Party (Die Linke) in the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, said in the context of the Russia-U.S. summit scheduled for 10 January.
In her statement, the Left Party representative de facto supported the demands that the Russian side had made of NATO. She stated, among other things, that the decision taken at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008 not to admit Georgia and Ukraine to the Alliance should be strengthened and incorporated into existing agreements. It also called for “President Bush’s” missile defense systems in Poland and Romania to be dismantled as being intended against Russia rather than Iran.
The Left Party, which is currently in opposition to the SPD-Green-FDP coalition, is thus taking a traditionally pro-Russian stance. This party has previously demanded cuts in spending on the modernisation of the Bundeswehr, and at certain times even Germany’s exit from NATO.
However, the communiqué issued before the US-Russian talks is a repetition of the Russian narrative almost ‘period’. It is worth recalling that the current missile defence system being developed in Poland and already operational in Romania is being built on the basis of a 2009 decision by the Barack Obama administration. It differs fundamentally from the project that President Bush had earlier outlined, both in terms of the missile system used (currently it is the Aegis Ashore, earlier there was talk of a GMD system) and the tasks it is to perform. Besides, neither the originally planned nor the present system has the capability to counter a massive attack by Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles and was not designed to counter this kind of threat.
But let’s return to Germany. The Left also criticizes the current government of the Federal Republic for “adding gasoline to the fire” and calls for a policy towards Russia that will be based on “relaxation” and “understanding.” It opposes the actions of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who is “constantly threatening” to give up the launch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. On the other hand, with regard to the situation in Ukraine, the Left speaks of “discrimination” against Russian-speaking citizens, and the conflict in the Donbass should, in its view, be resolved diplomatically, the communiqué pointing to solutions concerning autonomy.
The Left’s communiqué is thus further proof that unequivocally pro-Russian circles are present in Western countries – in the minority – who consider even the course taken today by Germany or France to be too harsh. Die Linke has 39 seats in the Bundestag after last year’s elections (30 fewer than in the previous term), and it won “only” 5% of the vote, so it has no direct influence on federal government policy. Nevertheless, such voices need to be observed when we analyze the actions of individual states towards Russia.
So giving in to a nuclear armed dictator…got it.
Statements of Die Linke concerning foreign affairs should just be ignored. Some of them are still mentally stuck in the GDR.
The Left are essentially the same as the SED which ruled East Germany. Why were they not banned?
What does that even mean? Who’s gonna do the “binding”?