Annalena Baerbock met more than 30 of her colleagues in her first days as Federal Foreign Minister, among them the heads of department from the USA, Great Britain and France as well as from all other EU countries. During her inaugural visits, attending the G-7 ministerial meeting and the EU Foreign Council, she gained an impression of the status of the discussion. The international calendar, which has been planned for months, has given her this cold start with minimal lead time. She understood how to use it. There is great interest in the position of the new federal government and its person.
Above all, she listened in the first few days. Baerbock even parried the public instruction by her Polish colleague Zbigniew Rau. The fact that she reads some points from the slip in view of the full agenda in Liverpool is due caution. Now everything she speaks to a camera is government policy. When she warns that the time for an agreement on the nuclear dispute with Iran is running out, it will be registered in Tehran. If she says about the controversial Russian natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 that it “cannot be approved as things stand”, the world listens. Sometimes she still seems a little surprised at the effect her words have, for example when she does not explicitly say that she only reflects the status of the certification process.
Politics must become more forward-looking and more cooperative – this minister understood that
Where she can speak more freely, she shows that she has got into the big issues – and is interested and having fun with them. Not every one of her predecessors in office always broadcast this with every fiber of his body. It sets initial accents, wants to link climate change and security policy more closely. Anyone who dismisses this as eco-crazy should recall the first fundamental foreign policy decisions made by US President Joe Biden.
One of the lessons from the corona pandemic is to pursue foreign policy more forward-looking and closely coordinated with our partners. Although such scenarios have been played out for years at the World Health Organization and considered very likely, the world slid into crisis unprepared. The improvised and uncoordinated responses from governments have often not made the situation any better. Disarmament and arms control, be it nuclear arsenals or autonomous weapons systems, are arduous but urgently necessary in order to stabilize the security architecture in Europe and contain future conflicts.
Even a green foreign minister needs planes. The world has bigger problems
It is not yet possible to assess whether Baerbock will be successful. It will largely depend on good cooperation with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which was promised to each other in the coalition agreement with a foreign policy “from a single source”. It is noticeable that the two vote, while those who have become nothing like SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich and the Green Omid Nouripour quarrel as co-chancellor and foreign minister in interviews.
There will be conflicts at some point, but there will also be the opportunity to play with distributed roles on the subject of human rights, for example. When in doubt, the pecking order is clear. However, good German foreign policy is certainly not prevented by the fact that a green minister also depends on the plane for her job or that Ms. Baerbock had a photo taken in front of the Eiffel Tower.