Calls from Germany for an Independent Diplomacy toward Russia

Among the main losers of the escalation of tensions between NATO and Russia, as Helga Zepp-LaRouche has emphasized for months now, is Europe, and in particular Germany. Not just economically, due to the deteriorating trade relations, and not just on the vital question of energy, as Nord Stream 2 continues to be blocked, but also, if it should come to an actual military conflict, even a limited one, Germany will be one of the first countries wiped out. Therefore, Zepp-LaRouche has called for Germany to leave NATO and to mobilize for a global new security architecture, taking into account the interests of all nations.

Others are also speaking out. Klaus von Dohnanyi, a former SPD Mayor of Hamburg and a senior figure in the German-Russian dialogues, has issued a call on Europe to launch its own policy of de-escalation viz. Russia, given NATO’s “reckless talk” in the Ukraine conflict. In an interview with the Jan. 17 Augsburger Allgemeine, he noted that for diplomacy to work, all sides must be ready to make “constructive compromises. Unfortunately, I do not see such willingness from the NATO side.” https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/politik/interview-klaus-von-dohnanyi-mehr-mut-ihr-europaeer-id61498076.html

Pointing to recent initiatives by French President Macron, Dohnanyi says the countries “that want a different Russia policy must do it themselves, as Willy Brandt did back then.” Poland negotiated bilaterally with the U.S. about expanded NATO capabilities. “So, France and Germany should also be allowed to talk with Russia about detente.”

The website Welt-Trends has published a declaration signed by some 50 security experts, military, and retired diplomats from Germany, who call for a revival of détente policies in the tradition of the 1970s “Ostpolitik” and of the 1990s arms control talks. While America may consider it advantageous to “weaken Russia internally and externally”, for Germany and the EU, “a Russia that consolidates is preferable.”

“Western confrontation policy against Russia is thus more in the interest of the U.S. and is part of the effort to keep Western Europe under U.S. control, than in the German and European interest. We therefore demand that the new German government return to the cornerstones of the peace policy of Willy Brandt and Egon Bahr.”

A similar conclusion was drawn by Frank Elbe, a former German diplomat who took part in the talks with Moscow that led to the reunification of Germany in 1990. Already last November, in a speech before students in Bonn, he pointed out that unlike politicians who were in power during the Cold War period, today’s generation of politicians has no clue of what nuclear war is and of the consequences of failing to pursue a constructive foreign policy dialogue with Russia. “It is time for Europe to wake up and give up the illusions that Americans love Europe They love doing business with Europe and they love the European market. But European and American interests are divergent. There can be no security against Russia, but only with Russia.”