Dhe new German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has assured her French colleague Jean-Yves Le Drian that she will work as closely as possible with her first official act. Baerbock had traveled to Paris late on Wednesday evening to start work. After the interview with Le Drian on Thursday morning, she said that Germany had “no closer friend than France”.
With a view to the French EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2022, Baerbock affirmed: “You can rely on German support from the first to the last day.” Europe will also need “strong Franco-German impulses” in the future. Le Drian said there is nothing more important than Franco-German cooperation, and the treasure in it is the cooperation between the two foreign ministers. The Franco-German cooperation is “vital for both peoples”. Le Drian praised the coalition agreement of the new German government, which represents what France also envisions in the guidelines for its EU presidency: “a greener, more social and sovereign Europe.” Baerbock said she supported these goals, “whether we can now call strategic autonomy or stronger sovereignty for Europe ”. Wherever possible, Europe must “seek cooperation” and, where necessary, act alone.
“Nothing nice but a first morning in office in Paris”
This applies not only militarily, but also in political and economic questions. The new German Foreign Minister said in the gilded clock room of the neo-baroque Palais on the Quai d’Orsay, through which the sun shone from the banks of the Seine, that there could be nothing better for a new Foreign Minister than to be in Paris on the first morning after taking office. She recalled the Paris climate summit six years ago. At that time, in 2015, she was also in Paris as a participant and saw how the then French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius used the power of diplomacy to make the summit a success. That is the reason why the Federal Foreign Office is also responsible for climate issues in external relations in the federal government’s new division of responsibilities – the relevant departments have been moved from the Ministry of the Environment to the Foreign Office.
By train to Brussels: Baerbock at the Gare du Nord in Paris
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Image: dpa
Baerbock traveled on from Paris by train to Brussels in the morning. She wanted to meet there, among other things, the American special envoy to the climate and former Secretary of State John Kerry. With a view to her meeting with Kerry, Baerbock said she wanted to “give international climate policy the place it deserves on the diplomatic agenda from day one – right at the top”. The task of diplomacy is to contain crises and to solve them; no crisis is more threatening for the future of mankind than the climate crisis.
In Brussels, meetings with the EU’s foreign affairs officer, Josep Borrell, and with the EU commissioner for interior affairs, Ylva Johansson, are also on the German foreign minister’s calendar. Baerbock said she wanted to “listen above all” on her inaugural visits. She assured that the new federal government would “not pursue its ideas and interests over the heads of our neighbors, and certainly not at their expense”. Germany’s most important interest is a “strong and united Europe”. Especially with controversial topics, it is important to always “think into the perspective and history of the other”.
Without explicitly mentioning Poland or Hungary, with whom the EU is in dispute on questions of the rule of law, Baerbock said that the prerequisite for a strong Europe is that the EU take its basic values seriously: “We cannot allow this, especially when it comes to the rule of law and human rights that Europe’s foundations are crumbling. “She said she wanted to support the French EU Council Presidency from January onwards” to make Europe more sovereign and capable of acting. On Friday she wants to travel to Warsaw for her inaugural visit.
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