German Chancellor Olaf Scholz: “We are ready for constructive dialogue with Russia”
While the perception of “Moscow is preparing to invade Ukraine” was created in the West, accompanied by the statements of political leaders that “If it attacks Ukraine, Russia will not pay a heavy price”, the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said “We are ready for a constructive dialogue with Russia”. “But this should not be misunderstood as Germany’s new Eastern policy,” Scholz added.
Olaf Scholz, in his capacity as German Chancellor, focused on internal problems in his first important speech in parliament, but did not pass without mentioning the setback with Russia.
EU ready to take unprecedented measures against Russia
“We are ready for constructive dialogue with Russia. We have to be ready to make more frequent attempts to reach mutual understanding to stop the cycle of escalation, which was previously possible temporarily with the help of the Normandy process,” Scholz said.
The leader of the Social Democratic Party continued his words as follows:
“But this should not be misunderstood as Germany’s new ‘Eastern policy’. In a united Europe, ‘Eastern policy’ can only be Europe’s ‘Eastern policy’. This is based on the principles of European law and peaceful order, which Russia committed to comply, but severely violated it in the context of the annexation of Crimea.”
Stating that Berlin is following the situation on the Russia-Ukraine border with great concern and will follow the same policy while making an assessment, the chancellor emphasized, “Any violation of territorial integrity will have a heavy price and we will speak with one voice with our European partners and transatlantic allies on this issue.”
The Kremlin, which persistently denied the claims of the US intelligence, which was widely covered in the Western media, that “Russia may be planning a multi-front attack against Ukraine in early 2022, involving 175,000 soldiers,” draws attention to the fact that “the West has been taken over by Russophobia.” The news of the deployment of Russian forces near the Ukrainian border counters that ‘every country has the right to freely move its armed forces on its territory’.
In an online summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Putin said that Russian troops do not pose a threat to anyone, and that NATO should not cross Russia’s red lines, expand eastward and deploy heavy weapons to countries neighboring Russia. ‘ he stated.
In his address to the parliament today, Scholz also addressed the concerns caused by the Omicron variant, which spreads very quickly, on the new wave in the coronavirus pandemic.
Calling on the Germans to be vaccinated as the only way out of the pandemic, the chancellor said, “Everyone should get vaccinated.” “I say to the citizens of this country, ‘yes, it will be okay, yes, we will win the fight against the pandemic with the greatest determination, yes, we will win this war, we will overcome the crisis'” Scholz said, “There is no red line in front of the government to fight the fourth wave of the pandemic.” referred to the possibility.
Promising to start Germany’s biggest transformation in a century, the Social Democrat leader emphasized, “We have 23 years ahead of us when we have to abandon fossil fuels and we will abandon them. This means the biggest transformation of our industry and economy in 100 years.”
Underlining environmental protection and digitalization, the chancellor promised to double the renewable energy production by 2030, ensure social cohesion and modernize Germany. He added that ‘EU success is Germany’s top priority’.
