diplomacy
Scholz is campaigning for Ukraine aid in Washington
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is currently trying to get EU partners to provide more military aid to Ukraine – including the USA. photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
Is military aid to Ukraine crumbling after two years of Russian war of aggression? The danger exists. Scholz visits the most important ally to counteract it.
During his visit to Washington, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) called for more military aid for the Ukraine strengthened. “Ukraine needs all our support to defend itself against Russian aggression,” he wrote on the news portal X (formerly Twitter) after a meeting with senators from the US Congress at the start of his 24-hour visit.
He wants to meet US President Joe Biden in the White House on Friday afternoon (local time). The main topic here too: How can Western aid crumble after two years of Russian war of aggression against Ukraine?
Meeting of Ukraine’s main arms suppliers
Both Scholz and Biden are currently fighting in different ways to ensure that exactly this does not happen. The USA and Germany are by far Ukraine’s most important arms suppliers. Scholz estimates the value of the military equipment delivered and promised by Germany at more than 30 billion euros. The USA states the extent of its military aid at 44 billion US dollars (around 41 billion euros).
At the beginning of the year, the Chancellor launched an initiative to encourage EU partners – especially economically strong ones such as France, Spain and Italy – to provide more support for the Ukrainian armed forces. The success so far has been moderate.
Senators hold out hope for approval at dinner
Biden has been trying for months to get military aid worth around $60 billion (almost €56 billion) for Kiev through Congress. Former President Donald Trump’s Republicans are blocking the package. After arriving in Washington on Thursday evening, Scholz dined with eight senators from Congress, including four Republicans. The German delegation then said that the discussion partners were “hopeful” that the USA would provide financial support.
The following day, before meeting with US President Joe Biden, Chancellor Olaf Scholz was confident that there would soon be a decision on new US military aid for Ukraine. It’s about a clear and important message to the Russian President and active help for Ukraine, said Scholz in Washington. “I don’t want to speculate how long it will take and whether it will take a few more attempts. But it would be good if it happened very soon.”
Putin is counting on the West to give in
The Chancellor made it clear that he hoped his visit to Washington would send a signal of determination to Russian President Vladimir Putin. US journalist Tucker Carlson’s interview with Putin, which was published during the Chancellor’s stay in Washington, may have encouraged him to do so. Putin said that the West was slowly having to realize that the conflict could not be won militarily. Sooner or later this will lead to an agreement. “Once this realization has set in, they (the West) need to think about what to do next.”
Biden is now struggling with completely different problems
60 minutes were scheduled for the Chancellor’s private conversation with Biden in the Oval Office. In addition to aid for Ukraine, the focus should be on the Middle East conflict and the NATO anniversary summit in July.
The US President is currently struggling with completely different problems. Shortly before the Chancellor’s arrival, a document affair caught up with the Democrat: It is about the fact that he privately kept confidential government documents from his time as US Vice President – which is not allowed. The special investigator appointed to investigate the allegations did not recommend any legal consequences for the 81-year-old in his final report. But he described the most powerful man in the world as a doddering senior citizen with major memory problems, which is extremely inconvenient for Biden during the election campaign year.
Series of slips of the tongue: Merkel confused with Kohl
In addition, Biden has again attracted attention with embarrassing slips of the tongue in the past few days. Just one day before the Chancellor’s visit, he confused his predecessor Angela Merkel with the deceased former Chancellor Helmut Kohl (both CDU) when he told an anecdote from the G7 summit in 2021 in New York. At a spontaneously called press conference on the special investigator’s report on Thursday evening, Biden made another slip of the tongue: When commenting on the Middle East crisis, he accidentally made Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the head of state of Mexico.
No joint press conference by Scholz and Biden
There is no press conference scheduled for Scholz. The German side gave time reasons as an explanation for this. For at least a few minutes at the beginning of their conversation, the two wanted to present themselves to the public together in the Oval Office.
It is questionable whether Scholz’s trip to the USA can really make a difference. The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, Michael Roth (SPD), said in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”: “The Chancellor is certainly a master of argumentative pressure.” But he doesn’t know whether it makes a difference in the debate, which is heavily influenced by ideology and not by good arguments. “It’s worth a try.”