Will Berlin after all oppose Washington’s attempts to give the MAP to Ukraine? These and other questions are raised in The Day ’s blitz interview with former ambassador of Germany to Ukraine and former advisor of Ukrainian president Dietmar STUEDEMANN.
Mr. Stuedemann, does not it seem strange to you that non-accepting by German Chancellor Angela Merkel of Ukraine’s wish to get the Membership Action Plan in Bucharest is coinciding with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position in a so demonstrative way? As it is known, at the joint conference held in Moscow he stated that Ukraine along with trying to join NATO should keep to democratic principles and that the choice concerning Ukraine or Georgia’s joining the collective security system should depend namely on “people’s will, not the will of political leadership”? Why, in your opinion, has Mrs. Merkel repeated Putin’s latest words on March 10 at the council of the highest military echelons of Bundeswehr? What German interests are lying behind this statement of the chancellor?
“Chancellor Merkel is well aware of Ukraine’s NATO aspirations and there is no principal negative attitude towards a future NATO membership of Ukraine. Knowing very well that MAP would not lead automatically to membership, I think, with her remarks she wanted to highlight major existing problems, which would not improve NATO’s role as a factor of security and stability at this moment. As long as NATO is not understood by the majority of Ukrainians as a security and stability building institution, but still in the old Soviet perception as anti-Russian or anti-Soviet structure, there is still a lot to do for Ukrainian leadership. How can a country having a lack of basic understanding play an active role within the security building network of NATO? That is a key question for Berlin and that needs further convincing arguments from Kiev.”
Does not Mrs. Merkel’s another statement seem strange to you concerning the resolving of the “frozen” conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia? Doesn’t German chancellor understand that Russia is against of solving these conflicts, because it wants to keep Georgia in a suspended condition?
“Mrs. Merkel addressed these questions including Georgia definitely not to calm or please Moscow. Berlin asks Russia constantly to play a stabilizing i.e., a problem solving role with respect to Georgia’s sovereignty and the frozen conflicts within that country. And there is no doubt in Berlin that Moscow has no right to press upon Ukraine’s decision to become a member of NATO. The question is rather about timing, preparation and ability.”
Will, in your opinion, Germany oppose US position to give the MAP to Ukraine at April’s summit of the Alliance?
“If there will be a majority at the NATO summit in Bucharest in favor of granting the MAP to Ukraine — something I doubt at this stage — Germany wouldn’t be the stumbling stone, I am sure.”
Mr. Stuedemann, what do you think, why Mrs. Merkel did not react to Putin’s statement “Medvedev is no less Russian nationalist than me, in a good meaning of the word” at a joint press conference with Russian president?
“My answer to this question is a very simple but basic one i.e., based on experience: We will judge them (Putin and Medvedev) by their actions not by their words. Everything else would lead into the trap of futile speculation and endless discussion what is meant by words like nationalist or nationalism.
“One might be skeptic about Russia’s prospects with this leadership having in mind the enormous amount of problems this state is faced with, but lets not talk down Mr. Medvedev before he had a chance to show what he is going to do.”
