Now We've Got An Ongoing Debate Whether
Or Not Western Allies Should Supply
Ukraine With Western-built Battle Tanks
Such As The Leopard What's Your Stance
Well I Think We Have A Debate about That Is
Only Focused On New Weapons, Which Are I
Think A Wrong Idea, We Just Decided To Uh
Send
Armed Vehicles To Ukraine And In The
A Moment That Was Decided The Next
Questions Were Raised About Whether We
Shouldn't
Send Western Tanks And What's The Next
Western Airplanes And Someday We Will Talk
About Western Troops, I Don't Know
So I Don't Think That This Is The Right
The Thing To Do, We Not Only Have The
The Military Dimension Of Working Together
But We Also Have Political And
Diplomatic Economic Dimension And Most
Of The Importance That We Act Together And That's
What's Happening That Means Not
Following Every Uh
The Idea Is Raised In The Public But
Instead Of Being, Reasonable Think About
Things Talk About Things And Agree On What
We Do With Our Alliance Okay To Stay
With A Question Of Weapons For The
At The Moment, There Hasn't Been Such Strong
Objections To A Supply Of
Older Soviet-era Tanks Are Now In Ukraine And
Their Allies Are Running Out Of Munition
For Those Tanks, What Will Be The
Consequences Wouldn't It Be Consistent
To Follow Up With Leopards
Well, I Don't Know If We Have Sent Other
Weapons To Ukraine That Have Proven
To Be Very Effective And Besides, I'm Not
Sure That Everybody Who
Takes Part In The Debate About Military
Things As A Military Expert I'm Not And
The Political Question For Us Is That We
Act Together With Our New Allies That's
The Main Point And We Just Had Another
The Decision It Was Not The Time To Follow Up
With A Very Fast New Decision
The Social Democrats Call For More And
Stronger Diplomatic Initiatives There
Have Been Efforts Diplomatic, Efforts
What Exactly Is Lacking In Your Opinion
Well The Problem With Demolish, Is What
Diplomacy Is If It Wants To Be
Successful, It Has To Be Behind Closed
Doors, Therefore It's Not Easy To Talk
About That Publicly Yet
There Were Initiatives, For Instance, The
Agreements With The Grain
Export From Ukraine, But That Was
Brought By The Turkish Government And
The United Nations And Its People Were Very
Skeptical And So We Cannot Do That
Because The Ships Are Not Sure And It
It Was Good That It Was Done
And I Wish That We Have Initiatives Like
That More With The Participation Of The
Western Alliance Rather Than The Turkish
President
That Would Be More Effective And It's
Always Something That Is Done Besides
All The Other Things, As I Said We,
Support Ukraine Politically
Economically Humanitarian Aid
Diplomatic Means Military Means And
Not Only What's The Only Public Debate I
See As A Debate About The Newest
Military
Possibility And I'm Very Skeptical
That It Will Be The Military That
Decides About Future Peace Orders In
Europe Um
There Are Military Experts In Security
Experts Say That In The Recent Past
Most Conflicts Haven't Been
Solved, Haven't Been Brought To A Peace
Agreement At The Negotiating Table But
On The Battlefield What Do You Say, I've
Read That, But I'm Not Sure That This Is
True If You Look For Instance At The
American Military Engagement Is The Last
Successful One Was
It's The Liberation Of Europe During World War II
Most Other Military Experiments That
From Vietnam To Syria Afghanistan Iraq
Haven't Been Successful I'm Leading A
The Committee That Looks At Afghanistan
War And The And Which Has Been Gone
Over 20 Years Was A Disaster At The End
And I Think We Should Avoid Thinking
That Political Difficulty Can Be
Solved By Military Means We Have To
Support Ukraine Not Be
Misunderstood By Military Means Also
Because They Have To Be Able To Defend
Themselves in Yet, The Solution For A
European Security Order In The Future
Won't Be A Military One
Still, If You See The Necessity To
Support Ukraine
As Well As Military
Support
Why Not With All Means, Why Not With
Everything That Is Available, Well There
Have Been Wishes In The Beginning Like
You Know Flight Zone
Obviously, We Couldn't Agree To
Because It Could Have Led To The
Involvement Of NATO, Being Part Of The
The War Which We Don't Want And I Would
Say We Have A Lot Of Common Interests Of
Ukraine But The Interests Are Not
Identical And So There Are Some
Perspectives On The War Are
Different And We Have Not Always
Agreement With All Our Neighbors In That
Most Important Is That The Allies Work
Together We Have A Common
Agreement With The United States And
With France
And We Try Very Hard To Do So And Put
Another Point Our Chancellor Who Is
Always Criticized For Being Slow
Deliberating Things Not Always Following
Up On Everything That Is Said That Has A
A Lot Of Support From The Public With Our
The Population Of People, You Talk To On The
Streets And You See That In The Polls
Therefore, I Would Say We Should Be Calm
And Do What We Have Done So Far, Can Go
Along With That Together With The Allies
That's The Best Thing To Do For A Russian
Dump, Representative Has Openly Called
For Killing The German Foreign Minister
Annalena Bear Book With High Precision
Weapons When She Was Visiting Ukraine In
The Light Of Such Remarks And Other
Threats We Hear Out Of Russia Are It
Really An Option To Negotiate With
Russia, Well This Is Outrageous, And We
Should Not Tolerate That And That
Putting The War Criminal Should Be
Tried And The Hague Is No Question For
I'm Not Talking About Any Sympathy
For The Russian Leadership, That's Not
The Point Is What Is
Reasonable To Do In Terms Of Supporting
Ukraine The Best We Can And In Our
Willingness To End The War As Soon As
Possible Without The Russians Being Able
To Reach Their Gain Their Aims They Have
That Cannot Be That An Imperialistic
War Is Successful And That Borders Can
Be Violated, That's Not Our Point Yet Moral
Rhetoric Doesn't Help Reasonable
Politics May Help And All The Things We
Try To Do It Together With Our Allies
So You Say More Weapons More Offensive
Weapons Are Not The Solution To This
Conflict Uh More Support On In Other Areas
Would Be Your Idea To Um
To Finish That War, Um Yet
What Would Your Angle Be On Which Level?
Could There Be A Diplomatic Approach?
Well As I Said Diplomatic Approaches Are
Only Successful If They've Done Behind
Closed Doors To Every Public Proposition
Every Proposal That's Public Would Be
Interpreted As Being Something Behind
Ukraine Without Their Involvement
That's Not Possible Ukraine Is A
Sovereign State And Therefore Diplomacy
Is Very Difficult
It's Quite, Uh, Doesn't Have The
Possibilities As All Those People
Talking In Talk Shows And Giving
Interviews And Saying What Weapon
They Think That Would Be The Right Thing To Do
And I'm Really Glad That Our Chance And
I Have The
Has The Possibility And Has
And Is Smart Enough Not To Follow Up On
Everything Which Is Said Publicly But
That's The Things That Have To Be Done
There Is A Meeting Of The NATO, Alliance
Coming Up In Ramstein Next Week, Do You
Think This Meeting Will Bring A Change
In The Western Approach, I Don't Know
I Don't Think That's Very Likely But
Nobody Knows The War Is Changing All The
Time, The Only Thing I'm Sure Of Is It's Not
Smart To Follow Up On Public Pressure
And We Won't Do That
Thank You Very Much, Thank You,
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