Wednesday January 12, 2022
Last confirmation is still missing
Berlin is to get a new US ambassador
The USA has not had an ambassador in Berlin since Grenell left in June 2020. The new incumbent is to become University President Gutmann – it is her second attempt for election to office. Republicans criticize their stance on Nord Stream 2.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Senate has given the green light to Amy Gutmann, President of the University, who has been nominated by President Joe Biden as the new Ambassador to Germany. The senators approved a number of nominations, including von Gutmann’s. The identity now has to be confirmed by the entire Senate before the 72-year-old daughter of a Jew who fled Nazi Germany can be sent to Berlin.
In the Foreign Affairs Committee, however, there was also opposition to the renowned political scientist and president of the elite University of Pennsylvania in the east coast metropolis of Philadelphia. The senior Republican on the Senate committee, Jim Risch, voted against Gutmann because her university had received “millions of dollars in donations and contracts” from China. This is part of China’s attempts to influence US universities. At the same time, Risch asserted that his no to Gutmann was not “personal”.
At her hearing before the committee in December, the university president said that significantly less than one percent of the funds raised by the university came from China. She doesn’t know every single donation and every single contract; However, it ensures that such means “do not threaten academic freedom and national security”. Gutmann had already nominated Biden as the new ambassador to Germany last July.
Gutmann’s father fled Nazi Germany in 1934
Republican senators subsequently blocked confirmation. The background was in particular the dispute over the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2. The Republicans insist on sanctions against the pipeline operator Nord Stream 2 AG, which Biden refuses in order not to endanger the good relations with Germany. Gutmann described the pipeline project as a “bad deal” for Germany and “terrible” for Ukraine, the European Union and the USA.
The ambassadorial post in Berlin has been vacant since the departure of Ambassador Richard Grenell, appointed by former US President Donald Trump, in June 2020. A confirmation of Gutmann as the new ambassador would be a return to her roots for the 72-year-old: Her Jewish father fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1934 and later emigrated from India to the USA.