The German Foreign Minister opens up to an indirect shipment of long-range missiles to Ukraine |

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has been open to a possible arms exchange with the United Kingdom in which Germany would deliver Taurus missiles to the British Government and London, in turn, would supply more long-range Storm Shadow missiles to kyiv. . In this way, Germany might indirectly support Ukraine and maintain Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision not to deliver the Taurus, since he defends that sending this long-range weapon increases the risk that his country will be dragged into war. .

For Baerbock, of the Green party, this exchange “would be an option,” as he acknowledged on Sunday night in a program on the German public broadcaster ARD. However, the co-president of the Social Democrats, Lars Klingbeil, immediately rejected the idea and this Monday asked European partners to focus on producing and delivering more ammunition to kyiv. “This is what everyone should focus on and not on other debates,” the politician asked, once once more revealing the discrepancies within the German coalition government, formed by the Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals.

“I think we have discussed the issue of Taurus at length here. The chancellor has made a decision. He has announced it several times. Beyond that, there is nothing new,” reported the Government spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, who has refused to discuss the idea of ​​an exchange with the United Kingdom, which the Minister of Foreign Affairs views favorably. British Foreign Affairs, David Cameron. “I have gone as far as I can go on this issue and, as I have said, there is no new position,” he stated in the traditional spokesperson press conference, recalling that this is an issue that is debated behind closed doors between governments. , and not at an event with journalists.

Scholz stressed days ago that the Taurus, having a range of 500 kilometers, might hit targets in Russia, which would trigger a serious crisis with Moscow or perhaps even a war. In this context, Cameron, when asked by the newspaper Southgerman newspaper whether an arms exchange would be feasible, He stated that the United Kingdom is prepared “to consider all options” to maximize Ukraine’s response capacity.

Likewise, Cameron rejected Scholz’s concern regarding the loss of control following the delivery of the missiles. “I can only talk regarding what we are doing. “We have supplied the Ukrainians with long-range weapons and we are convinced that this is an important and effective contribution to the defense of Ukraine.” In his view, “it is perfectly possible to impose restrictions on the use of these weapons to ensure that they do not contribute in any way to escalation. And they don’t. “They serve for the defense of Ukraine.”

When asked if this exchange is an appropriate solution to the debate over the Taurus, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius answered: “I don’t think so” and downplayed Cameron’s statements, ensuring that the only thing he did was The British minister was to reply to the journalist that the British Government was examining all options. “But that was all,” he concluded.

While Scholz talks regarding avoiding the risk of entering into a possible war, Minister Pistorius is immersed in an ambitious project to reform the Army, a draft of which, to which the Southgerman newspaper, uses the term “prepared for war” on no less than 17 occasions.

Criticism of the chancellor

The differences of opinion within the German coalition government are evident in almost every public intervention, something that will possibly surface once more this Wednesday in Parliament, where Scholz will face the deputies at a time when criticism from the main parties is intensifying. politicians and from the media.

In an article published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung under the title of The catastrophic defeatism of the canciller, Greens politician Anton Hofreiter and conservative foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen accuse Scholz of “dramatically poor communication” and of sowing fear among the population with his statements that handing over the Taurus would push Germany into war with Russia. “This statement is factually and legally incorrect,” they write.

The Foreign Ministry insists on remembering everything that Berlin has done for Ukraine so far. “Germany supports Ukraine more than any other country following the United States,” so it is “a biased perception” to speak of a lack of support for kyiv, Hebestreit, Scholz’s spokesman, criticized.

“Currently, we are organizing the massive supply of artillery and air defense ammunition. Battle tanks are being repaired, maintained and inspected. We are organizing new self-propelled howitzers. This year alone we have spent a total of more than 7 billion euros on this and next year we will spend more than 6 billion euros,” he listed.

These explanations do not satisfy the opposition, especially the conservatives, who have not hesitated to present a new motion before Parliament in which they ask the Government to deliver “without delay” the Taurus, which the German Army describes as “one of the most modern missiles of the air forces.”

For the conservatives, the issue has left an open flank in the government coalition. Since the motion is voted on nominally, all deputies will have to establish a position or abstain. The opposition estimates that some deputies from the Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals will support the motion and, therefore, express a position contrary to that of the chancellor.

Before this vote, the president of the parliamentary faction of the Bavarian conservatives (CSU), Alexander Dobrindt, has asked the deputies to be consistent. “You cannot constantly declare in public that you are in favor of supporting Ukraine with the Taurus and then cower in the German Parliament.”

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