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According to Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU), Germany should define its foreign policy interests more clearly and unambiguously and communicate them in this way. However, this does not mean abandoning values, the politician emphasized at the Körber Foundation's Berlin Foreign Policy Forum, contrary to the fears of some. Partnerships should also be sought with those who sometimes hold different opinions and whose positions may sometimes seem strange. In such cases, common ground must be explored because these partners are indispensable. The forum traditionally takes place once a year, and the incumbent Minister of Foreign Affairs has been giving a speech there since 2011.

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Wadephul also announced a structural reorganization of the Federal Foreign Office in order to adapt it to new requirements and make it more efficient. According to media reports, the restructuring is comprehensive and is intended to strengthen both security and economic policy competencies with its own departments. Responsibility for humanitarian aid, on the other hand, is spread across several ministries. The reform should be implemented by summer next year. According to Wadephul, Germany must redefine its place if the surrounding world changes. In the world, the willingness to cooperate constructively is being pushed back in favor of reckless assertion of one's own interests. “The situation has not been as threatening since the end of the Cold War. ”

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Regarding the latest peace initiative by US President Donald Trump, who last week presented a 28-point plan for Ukraine without consulting the Europeans, the Union politician said that there was now an opportunity to enter into negotiations. Despite the surprise, he said it was a positive development that talks were taking place at all. “And we are involved, we are being heard.” The US approach may be unorthodox, but it is always surprisingly flexible. Over the weekend, representatives of Germany, France and Great Britain met with Americans and Ukrainians in Geneva and apparently introduced serious proposals for changes to the plan, which included territorial taxes to Russia in eastern Ukraine and the entire Crimea and a downsizing of the army. According to both American and Ukrainian information, there is now supposedly a new shorter draft, from which, however, disputed points have been excluded.

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“We are Ukraine's advocates,” the German foreign minister emphasized in his speech.Whether there will be the long-demanded immediate and unconditional ceasefire depends on the aggressor, Russia. It must not be rewarded, he said, as it remains an imperial Russia whose ambitions extend far beyond Ukraine. According to him, the aim of the Federal Government is to find a solution to the question of using frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine by Christmas. The issue is controversial within the EU, primarily for legal reasons.

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Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), Chair of the Defence Committee in the European Parliament, was much more critical of recent attempts to resolve the conflict. Trump's assistance to Russia was a geopolitical disaster, she said at an event organized by the German-Bulgarian Forum in Berlin in the evening. The exclusion of Ukraine's NATO membership in the draft is not working at all; the country must decide on this for itself. Russia also wants to prevent the use of its assets. Furthermore, she does not believe that a new version of the peace plan will be reached soon — as is currently being disseminated in the USA. “Trump is probably just not in the mood to deal with it anymore. ”

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Vladimir Putin is not interested in ending the war. If Russia stops fighting, its economy will collapse. It is unbearable to always see everything through the perpetrator's glasses and not through the victim's glasses, criticized the FDP politician. “And what would it be like if the Europeans would also present their own plan? ” gd

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