Thursday, May 27, 2021
“No” to arms exports
Baerbock tried to combat damage
There has been criticism from many quarters for Green leader Habeck’s demand for arms deliveries to Ukraine. After he has made his statements more precise, his co-boss Baerbock takes him under protection and refers to the party platform.
Green leader Annalena Baerbock has reiterated her party’s negative stance on arms deliveries to war zones. “It’s also in our program, and we both see it that way as party leaders,” she said on Wednesday evening on the ARD program “Maischberger. Die Woche”. Co-boss Robert Habeck had previously caused a stir with demands for arms deliveries to Ukraine. On Tuesday, shortly before a visit to the front line in eastern Ukraine, he spoke out in favor of arms deliveries to Ukraine. “In my opinion, weapons for defense and self-defense can hardly be denied to Ukraine, defensive weapons,” he told Deutschlandfunk.
On Wednesday morning he clarified his remarks. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk he named “night vision devices, reconnaissance devices, ordnance disposal, medevacs (medical transport aircraft)” as examples of his demand. But these are not weapons. German arms control does not differentiate between offensive and defensive weapons. When the moderator Sandra Maischberger asked about Habeck’s original demand for arms deliveries, the designated Green Chancellor candidate Baerbock initially said: “He didn’t say that.”
Then she explained that Habeck had asked for support from the OSCE mission in Ukraine and had specified this on Deutschlandfunk. “This morning Robert Habeck made it very clear that it is not about defensive weapons, but – as we have already made clear recently – about ammunition clearance, the recovery of wounded people, civilians, with armored vehicles and also the question of support the OSCE Mission. ” Habeck had not commented on the OSCE mission in the radio interview.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has been present in Ukraine with an unarmed observer mission since spring 2014. Baerbock referred to an interview that she had given to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” a few weeks ago and in which she spoke about the difficult conditions for the mission on site. This mission could not do its job, said Baerbock at “Maischberger”, “because, for example, an OSCE drone was recently shot down”. Something has to be done. “That’s why we need air defense support.” Help is also needed with mine clearance.
.