“Be more critical of China”
Klingbeil draws consequences from Russia’s mistakes
05/08/2022 11:39 p.m
Germany has always maintained close trade relations with Russia – SPD party leader Klingbeil now describes this as a mistake. Warning signals such as the annexation of Crimea were not correctly interpreted. Klingbeil wants to learn from these misjudgments – and not just reconsider the relationship with Moscow.
SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil has admitted mistakes in dealing with Russia and wants to draw conclusions about the relationship with China. “We have always had a political and social consensus in this country that we want to be close to Russia, that we are looking for closeness to Russia,” Klingbeil said in a statement to the Phoenix broadcaster.
“That was the case in business, when it came to gas, when it came to oil deliveries, but politically we have repeatedly insisted that there be a close political consensus with Russia.” From today’s point of view one has to say that this was a mistake. “We should have taken a turn earlier – the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Navalny, the Tiergarten murder – these were all signs that we should have dealt with Russia differently politically.” Conclusions would have to be drawn from these errors for the future, said Klingbeil, according to the information.
“If it’s about dealing with China, for example, then we have to act differently today and be more critical.” In addition, when it comes to the future orientation of Russia policy, one must “cooperate much more closely with the Eastern European countries, we have to be much more critical when it comes to Russia and, above all, we have to become more independent.”
The SPD politician had previously announced a fundamental realignment of his party’s Ostpolitik in the “Welt am Sonntag”. The sentence in the basic program of the SPD, according to which security in Europe can only be achieved with Russia, is no longer correct against the background of the Ukraine war. According to Klingbeil, the party’s internal commission for international politics will determine the future principles of social democratic foreign and security policy in the coming months.