German Foreign Policy (DE/FR/EN)

(Own report) - For the first time since 1990, the Bundeswehr will be increased in size, provided new capabilities and have its budget massively expanded. This was announced by Germany's Minister of Defense, Ursula von der Leyen. According to her announcement, from now on, the German military's "human resources" will be flexibly determined. For now, an additional 14,300 military personnel and 4,400 civilians will be added by 2023. The military budget, which, in 2000, was still at 23 billion Euros, will be increased to 39.2 billion by 2020. This is the materialization of Berlin's geopolitical ambitions, which have been massively propagated since the fall of 2013, with the energetic participation of Germany's President, who has repeatedly called for a more offensive German global policy with the inclusion of its military. In the process, Germany aims to take control of a ring of countries bordering on Europe - some, rich in natural resources - that can constitute, above all, a "cordon sanitaire" designed to shield the prosperous European empire from all sorts of problems. Because the EU's original plans to use political-economic means to dominate this ring of states have proven unsuccessful, the German government is now turning to an open show of military force.

(Own report) - On the 71st Anniversary of Europe's liberation from the Nazi's reign of terror, currently pro-western Ukraine's leading historian - responsible for the official narrative on history - denies that principal Ukrainian nationalist organizations were collaborating with the Nazis and participated in the Holocaust. In a recent commentary, Volodymyr Viatrovych, Director of the "Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance" calls accusations of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) having collaborated with the Nazi-aggressors, "xenophobia," and the allegation that they had participated in the Holocaust and committed mass murder among the Polish population, "characteristic of Soviet propaganda." The Ukrainian historian wrote his commentary in response to an article published in the US magazine "Foreign Policy." The article sharply criticized Ukraine's growing revisionism - a revisionism that had already been promoted during pro-western President Viktor Yushchenko's term of office and further accentuated in the aftermath of the pro-western coup in 2014. "Foreign Policy," which has always been loyal to Kiev's putschist regime, now warns that Ukraine "could be headed for a new, and frightening, era of censorship."

(Own report) - German business circles and proxy foreign policy organizations are campaigning to have the sanctions against Russia lifted. More than two-thirds of the people in Germany are in favor of lifting sanctions, reports Koerber Foundation (Hamburg) based on a current opinion poll. More than four-fifths want close cooperation with Russia, and 95 percent consider a rapprochement in the next few years to either be "important" or "very important." The Koerber Foundation, an influential organization in the field of foreign policy, has, for years, been engaged in developing cooperation between Germany and Russia. The hope of an early lifting of sanctions was also the subject of the 4th East Forum Berlin, an economic forum with top-rank participants, held in mid-April, at which a state secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke in favor of new contacts between the EU and the Moscow-initiated Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The objective is the creation of a common "economic space from Lisbon to Vladivostok." The initiatives taken in Germany are being met with approval in several EU countries, including Italy and Austria.

(Own report) - In the debate about eventually halting the EU's sanctions on Russia, demands to extend the measures to affect "millions of Russian citizens" are being raised in Berlin. Under no circumstances should the sanctions be lifted, according to an article in the current issue of the foreign policy periodical, "Internationale Politik." They should rather be reinforced and, for example, supplemented by "banning visas for all Russian civil servants." That is the only way the force "the Russian middle class" into a wide-ranging "protest movement" to overthrow the government. The article's author had alleged, already last year, that Russia would only make political progress, "when its laws will be installed from the outside." Whereas some specialists on Russia are agitating against easing any of the sanctions, the German government is heightening tensions between Berlin and Moscow, by announcing that the Bundeswehr is currently considering assuming the command of the NATO battalions stationed in Lithuania. In spite of the Chancellor's allegations to the contrary, this would de facto be in breach of the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, which, in turn, means further escalation of the conflict between the West and Russia.

(Own report) - Germany's Minister of the Economy, Sigmar Gabriel, will travel to Iran at the beginning of next week to initiate new business deals in a highly competitive market of the future. German authorities are doing all they can to insure that once sanctions are ended, Teheran will allot contracts to German companies. Besides Gabriel, for whom this will be his second trip to the Iranian capital in the past nine months, premiers or ministers of a total of six German states have either flown to Iran for talks or are planning to do so in the near future. The competition is intense. Asian countries - from China, via South Korea all the way to India - are currently by far the most important suppliers of this country that is exceptionally rich in raw materials. According to business circles, time is running out. Although Germany has good chances, in light of the strong competition from Asia, it cannot hope to reconquer its previous 30-percent market share in Iran's mechanical engineering and plant construction. However, if business is not accelerated, they could fall far behind. The first steps have been taken. Siemens will build a high-speed railway line linking Teheran to Isfahan and modernize Iran's electrical power supply.

(Own report) - Grave accusations against Mexico's government and its repressive forces began surfacing soon after Germany made a commitment to provide aid to the police and military of that country. According to a newly published investigation report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the official version shows serious inconsistencies on how 43 students protesting government policies were murdered in September 2014, subsequent to a police intervention. Along with other serious criticisms, the IACHR has noted that Mexico's government appears to have little interest in solving the case. Their investigators even had been subjected to a defamation campaign, intended to comprehensively impede them in their investigation. For years, human rights organizations have been raising accusations against government agencies because of their close cooperation with the drug mafia and their implication in serious felonies. Nevertheless, the German government has not only approved the delivery of approx. 10,000 G-36 assault rifles to the Mexican police and ordered the training by the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) of Mexico's specialized units for fighting organized crime. Just a few days ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested the possibility of providing advanced training for Mexico's police and armed forces. This is in the context of strengthening the western positions at the Pacific - for their power struggle with China.

(Own report) - While the EU is sealing itself off by fortifying borders, including in North Africa, it is establishing a system of "concentric circles" of refugee camps, write Berlin's government advisors in a recent analysis on the German-European policy of warding off refugees. In the future, "EU refugee policy" will most likely be characterized by the "synergy of border fortifications, camps and quotas," according to the analysis published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Since some time, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders (Frontex) has been considerably enhanced. The EU Commission has called for increased deployment of drones and satellite surveillance systems to seal the borders. Admission quotas would de facto eliminate the right of asylum for individuals. Above all, the EU is establishing a system of camps in "concentric circles" extending from the EU's center of prosperity all the way to North Africa and Syria. These camps can "easily" be transformed into "detention centers," warns the SWP, making reference to the detention "hot spots" in Greece. These "hotspots" had recently placed the EU in direct conflict with aid organizations, the United Nations and the Pope. Detention centers for refugees, built with EU financing, also exist in Libya and Turkey.

(Own report) - The German government has taken the decision to expand the German military mission in Mali to the north of the country, plagued with terrorist attacks. Following the deployment of German UN Blue Helmet troops (MINUSMA) in Gao in northern Mali, German soldiers will also be training units of the Malian army. In the north of that country, there are often terrorist attacks on convoys of foreign troops. Most recently, three French soldiers were killed in a bombing last Tuesday. Observers are warning that, due to particularities of the peace agreement signed in the summer of 2015, the training program in the north could benefit future Touareg insurgencies. Three years after the beginning of the intervention in Mali, the situation is showing clear similarities to Afghanistan. One can hardly speak in terms of a "stabilization" of the theatre of operations, but rather, as reported by a Malian intelligence agency, of the "terrorist threat" spreading to the center and the south of the country. Attacks are being carried out not only against the forces of MINUSMA but also those of the EU's EUTM Mali.

(Own report) - Following her talks yesterday with Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany will strengthen its partnership with Mexico. It will train members of the police and armed forces and enhance economic cooperation with that country. Mexico, traditionally, has been one of the German companies' two most important trading partners in Latin America. Particularly German automobile companies use Mexico as a low-wage production site for the lucrative US market. Cooperation now will also be strengthened with the military and in the field of domestic repression. This must be seen in the context of the gradual polarization on both shores of the Pacific, as Western powers and their allies take up positions in opposition to the People's Republic of China, while several governments, which had refused to bow to western hegemony, have been recently either voted out of office or are threatened with being ousted. Berlin is offensively supporting those forces, cooperating with the West - such as Mexico, whose President Peña Nieto, in turn, explicitly recognizes Germany's "leading role."

(Own report) - The ceasefire in Syria is threatened to be torpedoed by a militia, armed by Germany's allies and included, under German government pressure, in the Syria peace talks in Geneva. According to reports, the militia, Ahrar al Sham, covered by the ceasefire, is participating in the current military offensive waged by the al Qaeda-affiliated al Nusra Front, which has been excluded from the ceasefire. Ahrar al Sham has been financed and armed by Berlin's NATO partner, Turkey and by Qatar, one of Germany's main Middle East allies. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had been vigorously pushing for al Sham's membership in the delegation of the government opposition at the Geneva peace talks, even though it has been closely cooperating with al Nusra (al Qaeda) for years. A recent analysis published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) confirms that this military cooperation is based on a broad ideological kinship. Ahrar al Sham is said to have also been implicated in a massacre of members of the Alawite minority. The militia is often referred to as the "Syrian Taliban," according to a leading German expert on Salafism and jihadism, who maintains that whoever "enhances its prestige," is "indirectly also reinforcing al Qaeda." This applies to Berlin's close allies as well as its foreign ministry.

(Own report) - The possibility of invalidating the will of the majority is being considered, in view of today's EU referendum in the Netherlands, where the population will vote on the EU's Association Agreement with Ukraine. According to polls, the opponents of the agreement were still in the lead. This is even more significant, because the referendum's initiators see the referendum also as a vote against the EU and the EU oriented elites, who seem to be losing influence over public opinion also in the Netherlands. A subsequent referendum on the Euro, for example, cannot be ruled out. The EU Commission President's patronizing interventions in the Dutch debate, no longer have an effect. Proponents of the EU's association agreement are, therefore, using anti-Russia sentiments and threat scenarios to try to reach their goals, warning that a "No" would strengthen "Putin." The CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation points out that the referendum is non-binding and could be ignored by the government in The Hague. A negative outcome of the referendum could also possibly be nullified with a "technical solution." German media are debating the very principle of national referendums on EU issues, calling them a "minority tyranny."

(Own report) - Massive international protests are accompanying the start of EU mass deportations of refugees to Turkey. The first 750 refugees are due to be transported from the Greek islands to the Turkish coast between today, Monday, and Wednesday. More than 5,400 are being detained on the islands in EU "hotspots" to prevent them from escaping subsequent deportation measures. Several UN agencies have publicly criticized the EU measures - largely enforced by the German government - as being in violation of international law. Clinging to these measures of mass deportation, Berlin and Brussels are heading toward an open conflict with the United Nations. In protest, international aid organizations have suspended their activities in these detention "hotspots," refusing to become complicit in the EU's scheme. Protest by refugees is escalating on the islands and mainland of Greece. The government in Athens is expecting massive resistance to these mass deportations. However, to ensure successful deportations, Berlin has dispatched German personnel - members of the Federal Police and of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) - to the Greek islands. For the German government, these, under international law illegal measures, are of strategic importance.

(Own report) - The participation of elite units of the German Bundeswehr in NATO's current "Cold Response" exercise in Norway, is a demonstration of Germany's growing interest in the Arctic. While the Bundeswehr is training in "winter warfare" skills, the German government, by its own admission, is seeking to make the polar region a "central focus of German policy." Because of global warming, the thawing ice facilitates the "mining of raw materials" as well as the "ships passage through the Arctic," thus opening up new "opportunities for the German and European economies." In the meantime, Russia has officially declared that - together with China - it seeks to turn the Northeast Passage, connecting the European North Atlantic via the Russian Arctic coastline to the Pacific Ocean, into a "transport corridor with global importance." US media are already speaking of a new phase of "competition" for "spheres of interests" and calling the Arctic a future "flash point" between Moscow and Washington.

(Own report) - A NATO war game, currently taking place in Norway, with the participation of elite units of the German Bundeswehr, includes training the deployment of nuclear arms against Russia. The exercise named "Cold Response" involves the use of B-52 bombers, particularly designed to drop nuclear bombs. According to Adm. Cecil D. Haney, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, this is to provide "an extra nuclear deterrent" against Russia. Parallel to "Cold Response," US Navy nuclear submarines are training the tracking of enemy submarines in the Arctic Ocean, to counter an alleged Russian "militarization of the Arctic." The Bundeswehr, in turn, uses "Cold Response" to train its units, specialized in military operations behind enemy lines. These units include the German Special Forces Commandos (KSK), who had been involved in illegal killings in Afghanistan. The KSK, according to the Bundeswehr, accomplishes its training task in Norway "preferably with no audience and in the dark."

(Own report) - Berlin is mobilizing universities and intelligence services to evaluate Russian influence in Germany and Europe, while expanding its counter-propaganda. Whereas, the German government is creating its own German Institute for the Study of Russia and Eastern Europe, to serve as the "point of contact" for its future policy, the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) is calling for future research efforts on Russia to include the "disclosure of Russian networks, the flow of Russian finances and its economic relations within the EU." Universities and other academic institutions, which officially are non-political bodies, should be included in these efforts. While the DGAP is moving forward and striving to promote the analysis of Russian influence in other European countries, the German government has tasked the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) with "investigating" whether Moscow is, in any way, interfering in German political debates. Counter-measures are being considered, it was reported. For example, the German-language edition of Brussels' "Disinformation Review," which makes an analysis of the media for "pro-Kremlin disinformation," will soon be published.

(Own report) - German foreign policy experts have noticed the EU's change of tune regarding its policy towards Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. According to a representative of a German party-affiliated foundation in Brussels, EU diplomats' "patience with Kiev is noticeably coming to end" in view of Ukraine's desolate development and the oligarchs' persistent intrigues. In reference to internal debates, the foundation's representative has also confirmed that voices are growing "louder" with wishes to "renew a constructive approach" toward Moscow, "not only at the economic" but also at the political level. The same applies to the recent Normandy Format ministerial meeting on the Ukrainian crisis. The German business community is also increasing its pressure to end the sanctions, because it is missing out on too many lucrative deals with Russia. A recent survey among German entrepreneurs has revealed that only twelve percent of the respondents are in favor of maintaining sanctions. In the energy sector, which, thanks to Angela Merkels engagement, has been excluded from sanctions, the German Linde AG was able to land a three-digit million Euro deal in January. At the beginning of this year, Linde CEO Wolfgang Büchele was named Chair of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA).

(Own report) - In an interview with Germany's ARD public television, the Syrian President Bashar al Assad acknowledged Germany's role in hosting Syrian refugees and does not rule out Germany's playing an influential role in Syria's future. He "hopes" that other countries, "especially European countries" - and Germany as the strongest EU power - would "play a role" in ending the Syrian war. However, to accomplish this, they must be "independent" of the USA, Assad declared. The ARD broadcast the exclusive interview at a time when Berlin is seeking a leading role in the international Syria negotiations and preparing to enhance its influence within the framework of the eventual reconstruction of this Middle Eastern country. Meanwhile, a US think tank is strongly criticizing the West's war on the "Islamic State" (IS/Daesh). According to the military-affiliated Institute for the Study of War (ISW), it is a mistake to focus the fight on Daesh and ignore other jihadi militias, such as Jabhat al Nusra. This would only facilitate the al Qaeda subsidiary Jabhat al Nusra taking power, particularly in Northern Syria, where the jihadists have firmly established themselves in the population. Berlin would also be confronted with significantly reinforced jihadist organizations, such as Al Nusra, in the framework of the eventual reconstruction efforts.

(Own report) - Berlin is energetically insisting on the appointment of a government of national unity in Libya in preparation for expanding two Bundeswehr missions. The future government, according to internal documents, should extend an "invitation" to the EU, to expand its Mediterranean anti-refugee defense all the way onto Libyan territory. It should set up armed forces that will be trained also by the Bundeswehr to go to war against the "Islamic State" (IS/Daesh). The USA, Great Britain, and France recently began operations ranging from air strikes to Special Forces operations, expanding the war against Daesh to Libya. However, without the ground troops, that the future Libyan government is supposed to organize, there can be no durable victory, according to military experts. While US media is speculating on the establishment of a pro-western regime in Tripoli, with the enthronement of a king, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is strongly insisting on the UN-constituted government of national unity being installed in office. Experts are already predicting its failure.

(Own report) - Assessing the outcome of last week's "Brexit" Summit quite positively, Berlin continues to urge London to remain in the EU. In the shadow of British demands to restrict social benefits for foreigners from other EU member countries, the German government has reached its objective of significantly cutting payments of child support benefits to immigrant workers from Eastern und Southeastern Europe - with an estimated three digit millions in savings to the German budget. The other concessions to London are primarily symbolic and, therefore, without consequences. It is also not sure that they fulfill the stipulations of EU jurisprudence. According to reports, a "summit choreography" was stage-managed, to be able to sell the meager results of the meeting to the British public as the negotiating success of their prime minister: All-night debates and hectic appearances of a seemingly stressed David Cameron suggesting tough power struggles over decisions that, in fact, had long since been made. Berlin is interested in keeping Britain in the EU, primarily for military and economic reasons.

(Own report) - In the Syrian war, Berlin und Brussels are supporting Turkey's call for a "safe zone" on Syrian territory. "Zones should be defined," where "the civilian population" could be "safe," urged Chancellor Merkel on behalf of the EU. However, this demand is aimed at preventing Syrian government forces from retaking key positions in northern Syria under Salafist militias' control. Ankara has been calling for this since some time and is now intensifying its efforts, openly threatening the intervention of its ground troops in Syria - a step that could lead to war between the NATO-member, Turkey and Russia. Dramatic consequences are also looming, if Saudi Arabia - Berlin's second close ally in the Middle East - carries out its threat and supplies the insurgent militias with surface-to-air missiles. Faced with this possible aggravation of the situation, concerned voices are being raised in sectors of the western establishment. For example, a US journal with a wide circulation warned that one should not fight Russia in the Middle East at any cost. Regime change policy, which Moscow is trying to prevent in Syria, has already destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq. This should not be repeated a third time.