German-Ukraine Relations

🇩🇪🇺🇦 I have found Germany's stance to be very peculiar throughout this entire Russia-Ukraine conflict and war. You would expect Germany to be very sympathetic to Ukraine's situation considering Germany's history with Russia. East Germany was occupied by Russian forces for a very long time, and yet we still allowed Germany to join NATO while they were in a territorial dispute with Russia. And the USA kept US forces in West Germany for decades to ensure that Russia did not take anymore territory from Germany at Germany's insistence. We are still there - we have several permanent military bases all over Germany to this day, more than any other country in Europe or the world. Yet, Germany will not even consider doing the same for Ukraine, and they have managed to convince the US president that he should not consider it either. I don't agree with the US president or Germany on this issue.

I think Germany's position has more to do with Germany not wanting Ukraine to join the EU if Ukraine is larger than Germany. The size of a country seems trivial to Americans, but it's not trivial to Europeans. The size of a country matters a lot in Europe or at least in the EU. A larger Ukraine would give Ukraine more seats in the EU Parliament, and a lot more political influence within the EU after they join. Germany does not want Ukraine or anyone else to have more political influence in the EU than they have. None of the other former Soviet Union countries were large enough to be a real German competitor. Yugoslavia could have, perhaps, but fortunately for Germany, Yugoslavia has been broken up into several smaller countries over ethnic conflicts. Ukraine, however, has managed to remain intact, at least until 2014. Ukraine also has the potential to develop a very successful economy, becoming an economic powerhouse in the EU, which would make Ukraine a major competitor to Germany, perhaps even surpassing Germany. I believe Germany's unspoken goal is to prevent that at all costs. Germany does not want anyone surpassing them in the EU. Germany enjoys being the number one economy in the EU very much. Also being the largest economic power in the EU is Germany's only viable claim to having a permanent seat in the UN Security Council - a goal that they desperately want to achieve. I believe Germany would rather have Ukraine loose territory to Russia permanently before they join the EU, then have Ukraine join the EU with their territorial integrity restored. I suspect that's the strategy or thinking of the German chancellor and this is why he delays as long as possible on certain decisions like sending tanks, which bought Russia a lot of time to lay mines along the frontline, while refusing to even consider other decisions like NATO membership for Ukraine, which will only give Russia an advantage in negotiations.

Breaking up Ukraine and allowing Russia to take Ukraine's territory is in Germany's best interest, especially for the former German chancellors sitting on the board of Russian energy companies, but it is not in the best interest of the USA, Ukraine, the EU, NATO or the international community.

Unanimity in NATO is vital - this is true. The US president must demonstrate that he can lead our allies unanimously in the right direction, rather than be lead by them in the wrong direction. The US president should know how to manage our allies' interests, which are sometimes conflicting, and persuade them to do the right thing, rather than allow them to derail our progress to pursue their self-interests. Unfortunately, Biden has not demonstrated his ability to do this with Turkey or Germany.

We will see what happens at the NATO summit. This is Biden's final test before his next election.

xo