The German ex-chancellor believes he did enough to prevent this war. He also urged “not to be narrow-minded” in dealing with aggression.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for an open debate on resolving Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. He made the announcement at an event at the Leipzig Book Fair, DW reports.
“For me, it is important, at least I have always tried that we do not narrow our thoughts too much,” Merkel said, answering a question about how to end the war.
He noted that if someone like the former head of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, said that we must understand at some point we also have to negotiate, then “there is no need to be silent immediately.”
“It’s not always the people who go with Putin,” Merkel said.
Responding to accusations of Germany’s reliance on Russian gas in the run-up to the war in Ukraine, Merkel said she wanted to buy gas from someone other than Russia when she was in office, but Russia had the cheapest.
“I would prefer the gas to be imported from the UK and Norway, as we did before, and the Netherlands. But they are no longer there. The question for us is: is it more expensive than LNG – a third more expensive – or cheaper than Russian gas,” said the former chancellor.
At the same time, he believes he did enough to prevent this war from happening, and “the fact that it failed is no proof that it was wrong.”
Recall that Merkel recently received Germany’s highest state award – the Federal Cross of the Order of Merit.
Earlier it was reported that the German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann expressed the opinion that it was Angela Merkel’s policy, which she followed after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, that most influenced Russia’s subsequent release of a full-scale war in Ukraine.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.