Schulz heads to Washington to boost Germany’s credibility on Ukraine

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Olaf Schultz meets Joe Biden for the first time on Monday with a clear mission – to restore German credibility in the eyes of skeptical allies who resented his response to the Ukraine crisis.

As the German chancellor heads to the White House, he faces accusations at home and abroad that Germany has become an unreliable partner and weak link in the West’s united front against Russia.

His domestic opponents say he has failed to show leadership over Ukraine and compares his lack of assertiveness in the conflict to the strong role of his predecessor, Angela Merkel, after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

“Europe faces the greatest threat to peace and freedom, and the chancellor has basically disappeared,” Frederic Merz, the leader of the opposition Christian Democrats, told Bild newspaper. “Everyone before him behaved differently.”

Meanwhile, officials are increasingly concerned about anti-German animosity spreading in Washington. Der Spiegel last week cited a leaked memo by Emily Haber, the German ambassador to the United States, titled: “Berlin, we have a problem,” which described how Congress saw Germany as a brake on sanctions against Russia.

Warning of “tremendous” damage to Germany’s reputation, she said Republicans viewed Berlin, with its overriding interest in maintaining gas exports from Russia, as “in bed with Putin.”

Much of the anger stems from Germany’s refusal to send weapons to Ukraine. In fact, it also prevented Estonia from delivering the howitzers that were once part of the stocks of the East German army.

“To me, it’s outrageous that Ukraine is not receiving the weapons it needs because another country, part of NATO, says it won’t agree to the transfer,” Republican Senator Rob Portman said last week.

Stored pipe sections of the Nord Stream 2 subsea gas pipeline at the Mukran port in Sassnitz, Germany. Former consultant Gerhard Schroeder took a position on the project in 2005 © Krisztian Bocsi / Bloomberg

Part of the problem, analysts say, is that Shultz was only in the Chancellery for a few weeks when the massive Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border in December began raising fears of an imminent invasion.

“This is an inexperienced adviser in international affairs who suddenly has thrown him into one of the worst global crises in recent memory,” said Ulrich Speck, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

Speck added that he would also have to deal with a coalition partner – the Green Party – with a strong pacifism, and parts of his party, the Social Democrats, “who do not want to confront Russia.”

One social democrat in particular has proven to be a big problem: former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who took a position on the Nord Stream gas pipeline project from Russia to Germany after leaving office in 2005 and was nominated last week to the board of Gazprom, the Kremlin-giant controlled gas. He infuriated Germany’s political establishment with his pro-Russian interventions, and accused Ukraine of “rapping swords”.

The damage that Schroeder and other sympathetic voices in the SPD have inflicted is likely to overshadow Schulz’s White House talks. “Germany’s reputation in Washington has dented, and Schulz has a lot of reform work to do,” said Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Institute for Public Policy in Berlin.

German officials downplay talk of a new climate of mistrust between Berlin and Washington. They say they both agree on the need to deter Vladimir Putin from sending troops to Ukraine and insist that Germany is fully committed to the package of sanctions compiled by Western governments.

The Schulz government has also hardened its rhetoric about Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea that has been completed and awaits regulatory approval, saying it cannot move forward if Russia invades Ukraine.

Berlin has hosted a string of prominent figures from the Biden administration in recent days, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and CIA Director Bill Burns, and officials say Shultz has been active behind the scenes as well.

In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, also sought to reduce differences between Washington and Berlin, saying they were “coordinating closely” on the sanctions package. He said that while Berlin has not sent lethal military aid to Ukraine, it does provide significant financial support.

On the military front, Sullivan said Germany hosts important bases to defend NATO’s eastern flank. The reason is that we are able to quickly move a battalion to Romania to reinforce and reassure our ally. . . “Because those forces were based in Germany,” Sullivan said.

Schulz is increasingly in the international spotlight. After returning from Washington, he will meet the leaders of the three Baltic states in Berlin before traveling to Kiev on February 14 and then to Moscow the next day.

A Ukrainian soldier patrols a front-line position near Avdiivka, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine © Vadim Ghirda/AP

Officials say the talks with Putin will underscore the “heavy price” that Russia will pay if it decides to invade Ukraine. Berlin believes that the message is coming from Schulz with more credibility than that from other Western leaders.

“Everyone tells us – you have a special relationship with Russia that no one else has,” said a German official. “With Putin, nobody gets over it.”

However, some reject the idea that Germany could influence Putin’s behavior. “The Russians made it clear that they no longer take us seriously as an interlocutor,” Speck said. “They only see us as part of the United States’ sphere of influence.”

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Even those in Germany who think talk of divisions with its allies is exaggerated say that Schulz has failed to explain to the German public what is at stake about Ukraine. He won last September’s elections on a platform leaning toward internal reform.

“It’s partly Schultz’s fault that he didn’t make his position public [on Russia] Banner said.

His aides say Schulze’s style is misunderstood. “His view is that you have to do your job behind closed doors,” one official said. “If you keep making public statements during negotiations, you end up narrowing your options.”

Schulze’s critics urged the official to be patient. “Let’s see the outcome at the end and judge him then – not now.”

Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington

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