German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected on Friday March 3 by US President Joe Biden for a short visit. This is not without challenges, since it will be an opportunity to send Moscow and Beijing a message of unity, after some tensions between the two countries which are among the main supporters of Ukraine. This visit, intended to “reaffirm the deep ties of friendship” between the two countries in the words of the White House, is the second of the German leader.
It comes after a tense period between Washington and Berlin over the difficult discussions on the delivery of tanks to Ukraine. The absence from the joint press conference program has thus raised questions in the German press, although the American president does not systematically ask questions when he receives a foreign leader.
This question has been “massively overinterpreted”, assures the Chancellor’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, for whom it is a “short working visit”. Between MM. Biden and Scholz, this will include consulting on developments in the conflict in Ukraine: “How will the next few months be in Ukraine?” What does this mean for the support that allies can provide” to the country, he explained.
For him, relations between the United States and Germany, dependent on NATO and American military protection, are “very good” despite ups and downs since Joe Biden has been in power. As soon as he arrived at the White House, Donald Trump’s successor had, for example, openly pressed for Berlin to renounce the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, carried out with Moscow.
Today, it is the massive subsidies to US green industries under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) plan that are drawing criticism from Berlin and Europeans. The episode of the tanks was also a source of tension. Germany finally agreed on January 26 to send a significant number of its Leopard tanks, giving a new dimension to military support for Ukraine.
The United States has also promised heavy armor, an announcement that has given rise to various interpretations in recent days. Washington gave the green light for the sole purpose of overcoming German reluctance to send tanks, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday.
Joe Biden had “originally decided not to send them because his soldiers told him that they would not be useful on the battlefield”, he explained on the ABC channel. But in the face of the German refusal, the American president acted “in the interest of the unity of the Alliance and to ensure that Ukraine got what it wanted”, affirmed Jake Sullivan. A version that the German government does not endorse, ensuring that the discussions consisted of building a “common approach”, without Berlin forcing Washington’s hand.
This meeting between two of the three, together with Great Britain, main contributors to the aid to Ukraine “should help define the way forward for the full implementation of the supply of tanks, an area where diplomatic efforts and larger industrialists are still needed,” Jeffrey Rathke, president of the Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, told AFP.
“What will not change after this meeting is that for the White House, most routes to Europe go through Berlin. And that for Scholz, all paths of support for Ukraine pass through Washington, “comments Jörn Fleck, of the think tank Atlantic Council.
China is another challenge for the meeting. Washington would welcome Germany, a major exporting power linked to China, adopting a firmer position. The reasons for tension have multiplied between Washington and Beijing, from the episode of the Chinese balloon shot down over American territory to the restrictions of use targeting the social network TikTok.
The United States also accuses China of considering the delivery of weapons to Russia to help it in its offensive against Ukraine, which Beijing denies. A fear also expressed by Olaf Scholz: “Do not supply arms to the Russian aggressor!” “, he launched Thursday from the rostrum of the Bundestag. The meeting between the two leaders thus offers “a valuable opportunity to send a clear and persuasive signal to China”, summarizes Jeffrey Rathke.