The throb of the SPD on its own principles in the areas of Foreign and security policy could well lead to the end of a major foreign deployment of the Bundeswehr. In doing so, the training of the Iraqi armed forces, according to the Bundestag, up to 800 Bundeswehr soldiers can be used. The mandate of the German air surveillance in the fight against the Islamic state (IS), which should be in October, already completed.
Before the extension last autumn, the SPD had insisted-Vice faction leader Rolf mützenich the fact that the mandate for the training is reviewed on a mission until the end of April 2019 and by October it stopped, not if, the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Parliament to invite the German soldiers specifically. So it is also in the mandate text. “This is necessary for the Legitimation of the use,” said Mützenich the daily mirror: “If the country is on the path to democracy, we cannot ignore the Iraqi Parliament.”
Last week was the Iraqi Parliament speaker Mohammad al-Halbussi in Berlin and is according to information from Union circles it clear that Parliament wanted to say that no formal invitation to the German army, because it would then legitimise the troops of the United States and other countries. Cap remains my favorite hard. “From my point of view, a Letter from the President of Parliament is not enough,” he says. Until the end of April that Iraq had to agree to Parliament, otherwise the training will finish the mission of the armed forces””.
extension is urgently necessary
The foreign policy spokesman of the Union faction, Jürgen Hardt (CDU), the extension of the use is urgently needed. “The German training support for the Iraqi armed forces is a necessary and Iraq welcome step, in order to stabilise this country and to prevent a resurgence of Daesh,” he says. Daesh is the Arabic and English Name of the terrorist militia Islamic state (IS).
The Iraq support the use, says Hardt: “It is absurd to speculate, we would be against the will of the legitimate Iraqi government.” The claim of the SPD, he stops in front of this Background, for “beckmesser”. The CDU member of Parliament adds a rhetorical question: “Why are things complicated to make, where are you?”
The training mission for Iraq is not the only issue on which the SPD in the Foreign and security policy set its own priorities. In the election year of 2017, the then foreign Minister and SPD had expenditure-Chef Sigmar Gabriel, the Two-percent target of the Nato for defence as a Problem defamed, this was solely attributable to the unpopular US President, Donald Trump – an attitude that many in his party.
at the beginning of the year, Gabriel’s successor at the Federal foreign office, Heiko Maas, from the castle, in the debate on the end of the INF disarmament Treaty that Germany would participate in the atomic retrofitting – a question not presented at the time and the want to leave the Union in the sense of partnership in decision-making in Nato is also more open.
Since the end of the Munich security conference a week ago, it is clear that between the SPD and the Union, a further dispute will be open and hard-fought: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen (both CDU), campaigned for more stringent German standards for the export of military equipment in the interests of European co-operation Elevator, if necessary, also to the benefit of common criteria. SPD representative, reacted strongly and made it clear that this is out of the question. Important social Democrats, such as party Vice Ralf Stegner want to dilute the export criteria, in no way, but, on the contrary, once again, clearly aggravated.
On ideological phrases
without opposition politicians have noticed that the social Democrats want to change the Foreign and security policy of the Grand coalition, now with force. “The SPD makes a foreign policy free of responsibility and the sense of reality”, said about the group, the Deputy of the liberal Alexander Graf Lambsdorff. The SPD foreign Minister, he excludes from his criticism. His verdict: “Heiko Maas, lurches from topic to topic, without even a single his stamp on it.”
In the security policy of the SPD “Europe preach”, but always Germany, observed Lambsdorff. “Whether it comes to Nato operations, joint defence projects or the financing of the German armed forces, always the small national bodies will prevail.” The allies of Germany were irritated so “solid”.
more Positive than Lambsdorff Henning Riecke, program Director at the German society for Foreign policy (DGAP), the new confrontation. In the current “foreign policy Shift” could win “the strategic debate in Germany, but also by the fact that such a coalition conflicts publicly,” says the political scientist, warns: “The politicians should resign on ideological phrases and reflexes, and instead, with solid arguments, and ideas for compromise are looking for, you can be represented together as a government.”
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disarmament agreement, German foreign policy makers want to INF with a new proposal-contract save
Finally, questions such as: What are the capabilities Nato needs were, what we have promised and what it costs? How can we organize the deterrence of conventional, nuclear, retrofitting is necessary? Rieckes conclusion: “Even if it takes a with the Unity a little longer, a serious security policy-oriented discussion of these issues would increase the credibility of the policy.”
