Merkel's US trip to focus on Ukraine crisis
The crisis in Ukraine will dominate talks between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama in Washington this week, with both leaders keen to show the West is united in its resolve to take even tougher measures against Russia if necessary.
The U.S. and European Union both imposed new sanctions against Moscow on Monday, accusing Russia of failing to implement a diplomatic accord aimed at calming the situation in Ukraine.
Merkel and Obama will discuss when they meet Friday at what point further measures — targeting the Russian economy directly — could be taken, senior German officials said before Merkel's two-day trip to Washington, which starts Thursday.
Henning Riecke, an expert on U.S.-German relations, said Merkel would seek to calm American concerns that Germany might waver on further sanctions because of its close economic ties to Russia.
"This is a really dangerous situation and it's important that America and its partners show unity," said Riecke, who works at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin-based think tank. "I expect a strong statement indicating that the West has certain red lines when it comes to Ukraine and the security of its NATO allies in Eastern Europe."
A strong show of unity over Ukraine would help smooth over differences that have emerged between Berlin and Washington over a trans-Atlantic trade pact — where regulation is a thorny issue — and the U.S. National Security Agency's spy programs.
Germany has failed to get assurances from Washington that the NSA isn't engaged in illegal activity on German soil — an issue that risked overshadowing Merkel's first trip to the U.S. since the extent of the NSA's eavesdropping operations were revealed almost a year ago. Merkel, whose own cellphone was reportedly targeted by the NSA, has tried to dampen expectations before her trip after the Obama administration indicated that it wasn't interested in signing a "no spy" deal with Berlin.
"She knows there won't be a 'no spy agreement' and she's a pragmatist," said Heike MacKerron, the Berlin director of The German Marshall Fund of the United States. "She will raise the issue for domestic purposes, not because she expects anything from the American government."
A German parliamentary panel investigating the NSA affair has asked the government to give its opinion on a possible invitation to NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The reply is likely to be published around the same time Merkel and Obama hold a joint news conference at midday Friday. Merkel will also meet with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday.
The Wall Street Journal: 1. May 2014
Ukraine Looms as Merkel Goes to U.S.
By ANTON TROIANOVSKI
When German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Washington this week for a meeting with President Barack Obama and other high-level gatherings, discussions about the Ukraine crisis—and the role of sanctions on Russia—will be high on her agenda.
But she will also have an eye on her deeply divided domestic audience and a politically fragmented European Union, both limiting her willingness to turn up the heat on the Kremlin as much as some critics in the U.S. would like.
Mr. Obama invited Ms. Merkel to the White House in a phone call in January, before tensions in Ukraine spiraled into a full-blown confrontation. At the time, Berlin was still reeling from revelations that the National Security Agency had monitored Ms. Merkel's cellphone. The German leader is expected to bring up the surveillance issue. But Berlin officials cautioned Tuesday that they don't expect a breakthrough in their efforts to secure promises from Washington that U.S. intelligence agencies would stick to German privacy laws on German soil.
In addition to time at the White House—the president has scheduled a total of four hours with the chancellor on Friday for talks, a news conference and lunch—the German chancellor plans meals with U.S. political and business figures and a meeting with International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde about financial help for Ukraine. Ms. Merkel will also address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to try to win support for a trans-Atlantic free-trade agreement that is being met with stiff opposition in Germany.
The meetings are likely to serve as a reminder of America's diplomatic tensions in Western Europe. More than a decade after Berlin opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, drone strikes, ongoing detentions at Guantanamo Bay and disclosures about the NSA's surveillance programs have continued to chip away at European attitudes toward the U.S. As a result, Ms. Merkel contends with a domestic political landscape where many voters increasingly question U.S. influence and are skeptical of facing down Russia at America's behest.
Foreign-policy analysts have long characterized Ms. Merkel, the leader of Europe's largest economy and a Russian speaker, as the West's best bet for getting through to the Kremlin. Ms. Merkel has talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone at least 12 times since mid-February, twice as frequently as Mr. Obama and more than any other European leader. Her country's total trade with Russia, some $100 billion last year, is nearly triple that of the U.S.
But senior advisers to Ms. Merkel, outraged by pro-Russian separatists' capture Friday of a German-led group of military observers in eastern Ukraine, acknowledge that Mr. Putin has failed to react to weeks of intense diplomacy by Ms. Merkel and her foreign minister.
"It's not a matter of a lack of contact with the Russians," a German official said Tuesday. "It's a matter of a lack of will on the part of the Russians."
German officials have signaled in recent days they are ready to impose further sanctions if pro-Russian unrest in eastern Ukraine continues to escalate. Ms. Merkel and Mr. Obama are expected to discuss what shape those sanctions—possibly representing penalties against entire sectors of the Russian economy—would take, and what events would trigger them.
One point of contention: how to spread the economic impact on Western countries. The U.S. would feel little impact from penalties against the Russian energy sector, for example, while Germany would be comparatively unaffected by limitations on financial transactions with Russian entities.
So far, Ms. Merkel's approach to Russia has reflected what Germans refer to as her "politics of small steps"—the sort of consensus-building, low-drama policy-making that won her support in Germany and helped keep the euro zone together during the currency crisis in Europe in recent years. But that approach has led to criticism from policy analysts and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic who say Ms. Merkel needs to show more resolve.
People close to Ms. Merkel say pursuing "small steps" continues to be as necessary as ever in the Ukraine crisis, with EU countries holding vastly different views on the crisis. German officials say that one of Ms. Merkel's main tasks is to help get all 28 countries in the bloc on the same page, with the Baltics and Poland seeking a hard line against Russia and countries with still-fragile economies or high dependence on Russian energy.
"Many Germans don't want to believe that the big brother is weaker than we would like," said Josef Braml, a U.S. specialist at the German Council on Foreign Relations. "The truth is that we're the ones who have to face the challenge of what is going on in Ukraine."
Reuters: 1. May 2014
Putin, Cameron agree 'peaceful means' only way out of Ukraine crisis
by Gabriela Baczynska
British Prime Minister David Cameron discussed Ukraine crisis with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on the phone.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister David Cameron, in a phone call on Wednesday, agreed the Ukrainian crisis can only be solved through "peaceful means", the Kremlin said in a statement.
"The Russian President noted, in particular, the fundamental importance of the soonest and unconditional implementation by the Kiev authorities of the provisions of the Geneva statement of April 17 to de-escalate tensions in the country," it added.
No comments:
Post a Comment