Status: 08/03/2022 02:13 am
Secretary of State Baerbock delivered a keynote address on the transatlantic partnership to US students. In it, she explained the lessons Berlin is drawing from the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine for cooperation.
It’s not a new call, but an urgent one. The Foreign Minister’s message was clear: now is the moment to relaunch the transatlantic partnership.
The Europeans must strengthen their strategic skills “in order to be able to meet the USA on an equal footing – in a leadership partnership,” said Baerbock in a speech to students at New York’s New School. And she quoted a former teacher – the German philosopher Hannah Arendt, and promoted it:
Thinking wothout a banister – or in German: Denken ohne Geländer.
“Partnership in Leadership”
And the Green politician recalls the offer that President Bush Sr. made during a visit after German reunification.
In 1989, US President Bush offered Germany a leadership partnership. That couldn’t be done at the time. The idea seemed far-fetched.
But in today’s world, that has changed fundamentally. More than 30 years later, the Federal Foreign Minister took up this offer from the US President. “The moment has come when we must engage in a partnership of leadership.”
Brutal lessons of the Russian war of aggression
This is not a partnership between Germany and the USA, but between Europe and the USA. The Russian invasion of Ukraine taught many brutal lessons.
Russia’s brutal war has shown: it is not theory, it is reality that these values are being attacked: freedom, democracy and human rights.
The US and its allies must therefore now build a “partnership in leadership” to defend their security, the democratic social system and the rules-based world order.
To do this, they would also have to say goodbye to certainties they had come to love. For Germany and the Europeans this requires a strengthening of their military capabilities.
In Berlin, Russia’s war has forced our new government to reconsider some views on security and other issues. Thinking without railings means for us in these times: Germany has set up a fund of 100 billion dollars to strengthen its military.
Moving away from “change through trade”
In addition, Germany has given up its long-held belief in the concept of “change through trade” – the idea that trade and economic relations can move autocratic regimes towards democracy.
The partnership must also include strengthening the resilience of democracy – against inequality, racism and populism. Democracies are vulnerable because they stand for openness and allow political disputes and debates.
In her New York speech, Baerbock clearly sided with the hundreds of thousands of women who took to the streets against the US Supreme Court’s abortion ruling. She gave her keynote address to students at the university, which was founded in 1933 by Jewish emigrants from Europe. Baerbock continues her journey with an inaugural visit to Canada.