Free Republic

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken probably thought that in his self-appointed role as the world’s policeman, it was his prerogative to check out what is going on among Germany, China and Russia that he wasn’t privy to. However, Blinken’s call to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday (December 23) turned out to be a fiasco. Most certainly, his intention was to gather details on two high-level exchanges that Chinese President Xi Jinping had on successive days last week – with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the chairman of the United Russia Party and former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev...

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has rejected a request by the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to visit Kyiv along with other European politicians on Wednesday. Steinmeier, a former foreign minister and erstwhile ally of the ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder, is on a state visit in Poland, where he is discussing the implications of the Russian war in Ukraine with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda. According a report in the German newspaper Bild, Steinmeier had planned to travel to Kyiv with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland on Wednesday. However, his request for a meeting was rejected by Zelenskiy, with Bild...

Pressure was mounting on Germany to up its game over the war in Ukraine on Tuesday as Kyiv snubbed the country's president and Chancellor Olaf Scholz was accused of a weak response to the crisis. On a visit to Poland, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier admitted he had offered to visit Ukraine with other EU leaders, but Kyiv had told him he was not welcome right now. "I was prepared to do this, but apparently, and I must take note of this, this was not wanted in Kyiv," Steinmeier told reporters. Steinmeier, a former foreign minister, has faced growing criticism since Russia...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday praised immigrants for their contribution to society, and for helping Germany become more open and diverse. Speaking at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the German-Turkish recruitment agreement, Steinmeier praised the families of Turkish immigrants and called them an important part of Germany. A Germany without guest workers, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren would be “simply unimaginable today,” Steinmeier said at the event. Germany began recruiting workers from abroad to in industries such as agriculture, construction, steel, automotive and mining in the 1950s. […] The President said he is shocked when people with...

In an opinion for a British newspaper, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and four other world leaders have pleaded for global cooperation. Rapid testing and vaccines for vulnerable populations are key, they write.Together with heads of state from four other countries, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for a “truly global alliance” to fight the coronavirus pandemic in a letter published in the British daily Financial Times on Wednesday. “There cannot be victory over the virus in one, or some, countries alone. We all have something to contribute regardless of the size of our economies or populations. A global solution is in...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced during a press conference that Ukraine has approved the Steinmeier Formula, which was the “final obstacle” to a new Normandy Format summit. He said that the Steinmeier Formula consists of several provisions. Approving these terms assumes that a special manner of local self-governance will be implemented in several Donbas regions and that elections will be held there. The details of the implementation of this plan will be formulated during the Normandy Format summit and included in a new law on the special status. “The temporary law on the special manner of local self-governance in the...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday asked Poland’s forgiveness for history’s bloodiest conflict during a ceremony in the Polish city of Wielun, where the first World War II bombs fell 80 years ago. “I bow my head before the victims of the attack on Wielun. I bow my head before the Polish victims of Germany’s tyranny. And I ask forgiveness,” Steinmeier said in both German and Polish. “It is the Germans who committed a crime against humanity in Poland. Anyone who claims it is over, that the national-socialists’ reign of terror over Europe is a marginal event in German history...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has declared Germany “is a nation of immigrants and will remain so”, asserting: “There are no half or whole Germans, no biological or ‘new’ Germans”. Speaking at Berlin’s Bellevue Palace, where a small group of people with Turkish heritage had been invited to share their views on immigration, integration, and xenophobia in Europe, the German president strongly denounced “exclusion of and discrimination against people with foreign roots”. “A permanent suspicion of immigrants, no matter how long they have lived in Germany, is not only harmful for the individuals involved but it is a cause of shame...

Ahead of Karl Marx’s 200th birthday on Saturday, Xi Jinping referred to the German philosopher as “the greatest thinker of modern times,” calling his theories on communism a tool for China to “win the future.” According to the official Xinhua News Agency, he said Marx’s name was “still respected all over the world” and that “his theory shines with the brilliant light of truth.” He also claimed that putting “Marxism onto the flag of the Chinese Communist party was totally correct.” […] Xi has instructed all party members to read Marxist works and to adopt Marxist theories as a “way...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked Shiite Muslims representatives on Monday how they were handling growing anti-Semitism in Germany. In a meeting with leaders from the Islamic Association of Shiite Congregations in Germany (IGS) at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Steinmeier expressed his concerns over rising hostility toward Jews from all aspects of society, including Muslims. “Anti-Semitism in Germany isn’t primarily a Muslim problem, but it is also seen more strongly among Muslims,” the president said, according to those present at the meeting. His statement was part of a broader conversation focused on concerns over rising anti-Semitism in Germany and to...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday voiced alarm over the growing “alienation” between Russia and the West, stressing the need for dialogue as post-Cold War tensions peak. Speaking to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, Steinmeier said last month’s poisoning of a former Russian spy in England, which Britain and its allies blame on Moscow, was “a very serious incident”. “But we should be at least as worried about the galloping alienation between Russia and the West, the consequences of which stretch far beyond this case,” the former foreign minister said. Moscow vehemently denies involvement in the nerve agent poisoning of...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a TV interview that though he is “irritated” about a lot of things happening under US President Donald Trump, he still has hope for the transatlantic relationship. Steinmeier said in the interview with ZDF on Sunday that there has “never been so much uncertainty in the history of the German-American relationship and in the transatlantic relationship as there is at the present moment.” Still, the German President expressed hope that other elements within American politics would continue to keep the relationship intact. […] In Germany, the President is generally expected to show restraint in...

Germany’s president said Tuesday that it is “truly urgent” to start moving toward a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Much time has already been spent on efforts to set up a state of Palestine alongside Israel, Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. “In the international community, there were many attempts and much time has passed, and those who know the region know that it has become truly urgent to implement proposals for a two-state solution,” Steinmeier said, standing next to Abbas. Steinmeier said he believes there is no alternative to a...

A special assembly elected former German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier by an overwhelming majority Sunday to be the country’s new president. Steinmeier was elected in Berlin by the assembly made up of the 630 members of parliament’s lower house and an equal number of representatives from Germany’s 16 states. He received 931 of the 1,260 votes. Steinmeier succeeds Joachim Gauck, a 77-year-old former pastor and East German pro-democracy activist who did not seek a second five-year term because of his age. […] “Isn’t it actually wonderful that this Germany, our difficult fatherland, that this country has become an anchor of...

Germany’s foreign minister on Sunday predicted turbulent times ahead for the world following Donald Trump’s accession to power in the United States. “With the election of Donald Trump, the world of the 20th century has definitely been overtaken,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote in a commentary published in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. Steinmeier, 60, has emerged in recent months as the German government’s most strident detractor of Trump. […] But Steinmeier said he would seek dialogue with the Trump administration and outline “our position, our values and our interests.” …

Critics have been questioning the German Foreign Minister’s recent series of comments about working closer with Russia, with some labeling the diplomat a “Russia sympathizer”. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier continued to push his ideas for détente towards Russia on Monday, arguing for better relations between the two countries at a conference in Berlin. “We cannot simply wish away a Russia that has become immensely more difficult,” he said, calling for Germany and Russia to go from “a phase of confrontation and growing tensions, back to a reliable understanding of common security”. His comments followed an opinion piece he wrote...

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier believes Donald Trump becoming US president would be a “frightening” prospect for the world, his spokeswoman said Wednesday. Steinmeier “is not neutral” on whether the Republican candidate is fit to occupy the Oval Office, the spokeswoman, Sawsan Chebli, told reporters. “He is of the opinion that it is frightening, if you follow Trump’s remarks, what could become of this world if Trump actually became president,” she said. …

Germany’s foreign minister says Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is one of the world’s “hate preachers,” who he says play with people’s fears. Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday that right-wing populists in various countries are united by one thing — “they make politics with fear.” …

Germany’s foreign minister says a victory for Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential elections could affect trans-Atlantic ties. Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an interview published Thursday that if the Republican candidate wins the presidency it would mean “a lot of uncertainty for the trans-Atlantic relationship.” …

The nearly 50-year-old union reached no level of stabilization over the weekend and on Monday, the Express reported “the foreign ministers of France and Germany” were revealing “a blueprint to effectively do away with individual member states.” The report said, “Under the radical proposals E.U. countries will lose the right to have their own army, criminal law, taxation system or central bank, with all those powers being transferred to Brussels.” The report said the plot “has sparked fury and panic in Poland … after being leaked to Polish news channel TVP Info.” The report said Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski...