Shield of Discord

German coalition quarrels over missile defense

Discord is brewing in the German government. The reason for the skirmish between the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats in the ruling coalition was the prospect of placing an American missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Last week, Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded that the missile defense project be transferred to NATO. Thus, she scolded not so much the overseas partners for “single steps”, but the Europeans themselves for their inability to reach consensus on the issue of increasing the role of NATO. At the end of the week in Warsaw, Angela Merkel even managed to win over Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

And already in the Sunday edition of the influential conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine an article was published by German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier sharply criticizing American plans to create a missile defense system. This happened on the very day when the minister representing the country presiding over the current half-year in the European Union flew to Washington on a working visit to prepare for the EU-US summit, which is scheduled for April 30 in the American capital.

Such an unexpected informational preparation of Mr. Steinmeier's visit left no doubt that the missile shield problem will occupy one of the leading places at his negotiations in the United States. Security cannot be acquired at the price of new mistrust - this was the leitmotif of the newspaper interview with the head of the Foreign Ministry. Russia and the United States, Mr. Steinmeier noted, should not return to Cold War reflexes. “There is no “old” and “new” Europe, and no one should, based on their short-term calculations, try to feed the bacteria of division,” the minister is convinced.

The article was the first anti-American attack by a member of Chancellor Merkel's cabinet during her reign. From the Old World across the ocean, frost blew across German-American relations during the time of Gerhard Schröder, when the Chancellor sharply criticized the US invasion of Iraq. President Bush then did not remain in debt and made it a practice to call the previous Chancellor of Germany nothing more than “that German.”

For new Chancellor Angela Merkel, improving relations with the United States has become a foreign policy priority. It is not surprising that she looks extremely disapprovingly of her minister’s current anti-American demarche. However, the Social Democratic minister’s sharp criticism of Washington in the Christian Democratic camp is attributed to the continuing decline in the SPD’s ratings. They say that Steinmeier resorted to the old tried and true method and introduced a fresh anti-American current into the party. The SPD faction in the Bundestag commented on the situation vaguely for Vremya Novostey: they say that so far the members of the faction do not have a common opinion either on the missile defense program or on the head of the Foreign Ministry.

Christian Democrats rejected criticism of the United States. The foreign policy speaker of the CDU/CSU parliamentary faction, Eckart von Kleden, emphasized that “no one in the West wants a new arms race.” According to von Kleden, Russia’s fears regarding military-political risks in connection with the implementation of the missile defense program in Europe are “unfounded.” He confirmed the Christian Democrats' line of turning missile defense into a NATO program. Only in this way, using the mechanism of the Russia-NATO Council, can Russia be involved in this project. At the same time, von Kleden warned: “There should be no Russian veto against the security policy interests of our country or our allies.” He especially emphasized: “We should not give up what we consider correct just because it is misunderstood in Moscow.”

Nevertheless, leading German politicians believe mutual agreements are possible both within Germany and abroad. Chancellor Merkel continues to remain optimistic. “The chances for a solution that suits everyone are not too bad,” she told the Neue Press newspaper yesterday. And German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, in another publication, called the Russia-NATO Council “the right place to discuss such issues.”

Yuri Shpakov, Berlin