The Magical Merkel Tour

Since being sworn in November 22nd of last year, Bundeskanzerlin Angela Merkel has been busy visting foreign heads of state. Only two days after being sworn in she headed to Paris and then to Brussels to meet with NATO. In Paris she put more distance between herself and Chirac and in Brussels moved closer to America through the transatlantic alliance. The next day, it was off to London to meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair to help settle the EU budget dispute and strengthen ties with the UK.

After returning to Berlin for a short stint, it was back on the road to Warsaw to meet with their newly elected goverment and “intensify relations.” Next up was a visit to Rome for an evening of dining with Silvio Berlusconi who admitted he was rooting for her in the Germane lections. Both pledged to increase bilateral ties and that with the recent change of government in Germany, their cooperation on foreign affairs would also be much easier.

After Rome, she rung in the new year with a visit to Washington DC to meet with President Bush. After discussing Iraq, the Balkans, Palestine and the EU, they issued a joint statement in which Merkel mentioned that

And I think there is a lot of common ground here because we are at one in thinking that, obviously, we ought not to fall back into isolationist tendencies. We know that these tendencies are there, for example, in the European Union. [...]

Secondly, apart from the domestic component, Germany wants to be a reliable partner to our partners in the world. We also openly addressed that there sometimes have been differences of opinion.

Almost a week after visiting Washington, it was off to the Kremlin to redefine Germany’s relationship with Russia, that is, extending it to more than just business and energy interests. Though she did speak frankly about human rights issues in Russia, she managed to walk away with a good visit pleasing observers at home, releiving Putin and gaining support within Russia for her direct remarks on Chechnya and other topics. Her fluent Russia and East German background undoubtedly helped forge a closer relationship than that of merely two heads of state. You’ll recall Putin can also speak fluent German as he was a KGB agent in Dresden for some time.

Her most recent visit is to Jerusalem, meeting with the acting Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. After the usual mantra on German history, the two moved on two real business discussing Hamas’ recent victory and Iran’s nuclear ambitions. She threatened to cut off EU aid to the Palestinians should Hamas not recognize Israel’s right to exist and renouce violence and said that Iran’s nuclear program was a threat not only for Israel but for the entire world. Next up is a trip to Ramallah to meet with PA Chairman Abbas.

In December, I discussed German foreign policy as Iran became more belligerent and the scandal surrounding former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder who took a job overseeing a pipeline from Russia which he helped approve while in office. This post is the first in a two part series on Germany’s changing foreign policy under Merkel. The next part will build on the summary above with analyis and predictions. Bis bald!