It was this week’s geopolitical meeting: Chinese President Xi visited Russian President Putin in Moscow. And there the two have identified a strategic partnership. The balance of power between the countries is very clearly distributed: “Putin is the junior partner,” says Christoph Heusgen. He is head of the Munich Security Conference and was ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foreign and security policy adviser for more than ten years. Xi pays tribute to Putin with the visit and gets cheap energy from Russia in return. “The Chinese would call that a win-win situation,” says Heusgen.
The visit also shows: “The Chinese support the Russians diplomatically and on the world stage.” China wants to position itself as a mediator in the war of aggression against Ukraine. For Heusgen, this is “more show than substance”.
Heusgen, who helped negotiate the Minsk Agreement, which at least temporarily pacified the 2014/2015 Crimean War, also talks about these negotiations in the podcast: “We met in a small room and then negotiated all night, based on a drafted paper. And then you went through section by section.” Until an agreement is reached. Regarding peace negotiations in the current war, he says: “An agreement will have to be reached that is comparable to the Minsk Agreement.”
To ensure that Germany does not become as dependent again in the future as it was with Russia and energy, Heusgen recommends: “As Germany, we have to take much more care of Africa, Latin America and Asia in politics and in the economy.”
You can find the text on Peter Urban here.
The editorial deadline for this program was Friday, March 24, 2023 at 6 p.m.
Moderation, editing: Johannes Korsche
Editors: Antonia Franz, Sabrina Höbel, Vinzent-Vitus Leitgeb
Production: Imanuel Pedersen
Additional audio from BBC News, IPCC, LCI, ZDF, Eurovision Song Contest.
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