German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has refused to return to any kind of normal relationship with Russia following its war of aggression against Ukraine, using a statement to the Bundestag to reaffirm Berlin’s support for Kyiv.
“Partnership. . . “Putin’s aggressive imperialist Russia is unthinkable for the foreseeable future,” he told lawmakers.
He spoke just days after one of his closest advisers, Jens Plotner, made waves by suggesting that the media focus more on Germany’s future relations with Russia than on supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons.
Scholz did not comment on Plotner’s remarks, but downplayed the prospect of ever returning to Germany’s relations with Russia before President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February.
However, NATO should not repeal the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, which governs relations between Moscow and the Western military alliance, he said, adding that it would “play into the hands of Putin and his propaganda”.
The chancellor said the founding act contained principles – such as respect for borders, sovereignty of independent states and non-violence – that Putin had violated.
In a statement issued ahead of this week’s EU summit in Brussels, the G7 summit in Bavaria over the weekend and the NATO summit in Madrid next week, Scholz called for a new “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine, which to help its post-war recovery.
Scholz said the images he saw during a trip to Kyiv earlier this month reminded him of photos of German cities destroyed during World War II. “And just as war-torn Europe then, Ukraine now needs a Marshall Plan to rebuild it,” he said.
Foreign Policy Adviser Plotner this week provoked an angry reaction from political critics as well as allies after he said the discussion on helping Ukraine was driven by “a fever that misses the big problems”.
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“You can fill many pages in newspapers with 20 Marders [a kind of infantry fighting vehicle Kyiv has requested from Germany]but there are somehow fewer articles about what our relationship with Russia should be like in the future, “Plotner said during a debate in the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) on Monday.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, an MP from the Liberal Free Democrats, one of the three parties in Scholz’s ruling coalition, said Plotner’s comments revealed “the way of thinking over the past few decades that has led us to this terrible situation.”
“This is not the time to think lovingly for Russia, but to help Ukraine,” added Strack-Zimmermann, who is also chairman of the Bundestag’s defense committee.
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