Currently at the NATO summit in Washington with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that, in view of alleged Russian war against Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, “we need more diplomacy, not less.... Otherwise others will fill the gaps. And that is why I believe that political responsibility in these times of crisis means that, as Foreign Minister, I should not be preoccupied with running for Chancellor, but should continue to devote all my energy as Foreign Minister to creating trust and building cooperation, creating structures that are reliable.”
Apart from the fact that Baerbock chose CNN and not German media to make her announcement, she cannot be expected, because of her deep involvement in NATO geopolitics, to engage in constructive diplomacy of the kind that the Hungarian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister have shown. Szijjarto called off a scheduled July 8 meeting with Baerbock, because she tried to interfere with his plan to accompany Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on his July 5 visit to Moscow to discuss diplomacy to end the Ukraine war in a way acceptable for Russia as well as with Kyiv, where he had just been on July 2. What is also not covered, however, is that Orban and Szijjarto were planning to visit Beijing on July 7-8, whose peace efforts were likewise strong.
