Dhe foreign ministers of the seven leading Western industrialized countries decided in Münster to coordinate their aid for the destroyed infrastructure in Ukraine. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) stated that 35 to 40 percent of the power supply had been destroyed by Russian attacks. If the western world is not successful with support and repair aid, then the civilian population will suffer. Russian President Vladimir Putin is pursuing a “strategy of starvation and freezing to death”. Apparently, Putin wants to “starve to death” those cities in Ukraine that he had not been able to conquer before, with targeted strikes against electricity and water supplies.
Baerbock said that Germany has already launched more than 100 power generators, as well as heaters, pumps, residential and sanitary containers. Now the foreign ministers from the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan should “coordinate the winter aid together as the G 7”. Baerbock asserted that we will not accept that Putin can break Ukraine’s resistance or the coordinated support of the international community. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba took part in the first round of ministerial consultations via video link and reported on the level of support that Ukraine currently needs.
The meeting of the seven foreign ministers in Münster is their second formal meeting in the year of the German G7 presidency. The seven have met around ten times since the start of the Russian war of aggression in February, mostly to discuss urgent responses to Russian aggression. The German hostess said at the beginning of the deliberations, which are taking place in the historic Peace Hall of Münster’s town hall, that the city has stood for “peace through law” since the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The group of G-7 states also stand for this connection. In view of the war that Russia is waging in Ukraine, it is “all the more important to show that we stand together for global peace and for the strength of international law”.
At a joint event with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Baerbock said the transatlantic partners and the entire western world were “closer than they have been since the end of the Cold War”. She spoke of a “transatlantic moment”. In recent decades, peace has been taken for granted in the West, and some have wondered what the partnership between Europeans and Americans is for; “Now we know what for,” Baerbock said. The order is “crystal clear”: The transatlantic West must be “stronger than this war”.
Baerbock and Blinken discussed the opportunities and dangers of the digital world at a “German-American Future Forum”. The German foreign minister said the West must be more alert to Russian fake news attacks. For example, when the western world imposed its sanctions on the Russian aggressor, it did not consider how “the Russian counterattack” would turn out. The Russian side developed the narrative that the sanctions prevented Russian wheat exports and thus increased world hunger. In turn, the West had to react to Putin’s “food war”. Baerbock said recent Russian shifts in stance on the grain export deal show once again how Putin is trying to drag the world’s poorest countries “into this conflict.”
At their meeting in Münster, the foreign ministers of the G 7 also dealt with China and the situation in the Indo-Pacific world, with Iran, with Central Asia and Africa. With regard to China, Baerbock said that it would have to be discussed “how mistakes we made in the past towards Russia will not be repeated towards China”. China must be perceived more as a rival in terms of the international order. The country was also the subject of a bilateral German-Japanese roundtable, which brought together the foreign and defense ministers of Germany and Japan before the start of the G-7 meeting. Japan will take over the G7 presidency from Germany next year.