Olaf Scholz at Davos: 2022 ‘challenged us as never before’
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke gave a rare speech in English in Davos on Wednesday, saying that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 — soon after last year’s World Economic Forum — had thrown the world into turmoil.
“What a difference a year makes. At the start of 2022, many people were expecting a boom or at least a substantial boost for our economies’ transition towards climate neutrality. Then came February 24,” Scholz said, referring to the date of the invasion.
He said the war was having a devastating effect on Ukraine in particular, citing Wednesday’s death of the interior minister in a helicopter crash and offering condolences.
“But the war is having impacts on all of us,” Scholz said.
He went on to outline risks to the geopolitical order, challenges for various countries, not least Germany, to rapidly give up Russian fossil fuel exports, inflation and other issues.
However, he tried to argue that opportunities to accelerate the green transition could prove a rare positive by-product of the turbulent year.
‘In order for this war to end, Russia must fail’
“The other part of the story is this,” Scholz said. “Russia has already failed completely in reaching its imperialist goals. Ukraine is defending itself with impressive courage.
Scholz also said that “Russia must fail” in order for the conflict in eastern Europe to end.
“That is why we are continuously providing weapons systems to Ukraine, along with our partners,” Scholz said, listing several of the weapons systems Germany has sent to Ukraine so far, including the IRIS-T medium-range surface-to-air missiles, one of the most recent and advanced examples.
He mentioned the existing armored vehicles like Marders (weasels in English, Germany names most of its military land vehicles after animals) Germany had dispatched.
He did not touch on the Leopard 2 tanks which some NATO allies, most notably Poland but also the UK and Lithuania and others, have been encouraging Germany to approve for export to the front lines. Germany must approve the resale or donation of its military equipment to a third country.
Kyiv pushing for fast delivery of tanks
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A meeting of NATO defense ministers is scheduled at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday where the topic is likely at the very least to be discussed behind closed doors.
Scholz said Germany had also made “over €12 billion” (around $13 billion at today’s exchange rate) available to Ukraine and would continue to support the country “as long as is necessary.” He called for the private sector to play a “key role” in nascent plans for the so-called “Marshall Plan for Ukraine” jointly recommended by Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last October.
More to follow…
msh/wmr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
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Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/olaf-scholz-at-davos-2022-challenged-us-as-never-before/a-64440504?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom