Her government took too long to react to Moscow’s aggressive behaviour at the time, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during an interview, adding that a diplomatic solution needs to be found to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The conservative politician was in office as chancellor of Germany for 16 years up to December 2021, leading various coalitions. During that time, “we should have reacted more quickly to Russia’s aggressiveness,” Merkel told German weekly Die Zeit in an interview published on Wednesday, adding that investments in the country’s military had been “neglected.”
Even though she said her party, the conservative Union of CDU and CSU, was the only one to advocate higher defence funding, she admitted that Germany did not reach NATO’s spending target of 2% of GDP.
“This means that we did not do enough in terms of deterrence through higher defence spending,” the ex-chancellor concluded.
Since the start of the war, Merkel has come under fire for the friendly relationship with Russia, based on mutual business interests, that her government maintained even after the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Meanwhile, Merkel’s own turn towards self-criticism is new: Earlier this year, she was still defending the legacy of her Russia policy, arguing Germany’s economic rapprochement with Moscow during her time in office rested on the assumption that “one cannot completely ignore” Russia.
At the same time, the ex-chancellor called to work towards a “diplomatic solution” for Russia’s current war in Ukraine during the interview, although she did not want to comment on the conditions under which she would deem a peace agreement acceptable.
(Julia Dahm | EURACTIV.de)
Source: euractiv.com
