German Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck went off on a three-day visit to India, and on the very first day he starts going on about how New Delhi must condemn “Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
This is the exact same attitude his fellow Green, foreign minister Annalena Baerbock recently took with Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang. While Qin stressed China’s neutrality and its efforts to formulate a peace plan, Baerbock insisted neutrality is not an option. “Neutrality means taking the side of the aggressor,” she told Qin while also labeling China a “systemic rival.”
Here are Habeck’s comments, courtesy of Deutsche Welle:
“There’s always an aggressor and one that is the victim, and if you say ‘I don’t distinguish between aggressor and victim,’ in a way, you don’t reflect the real situation,” he said.
Habeck said while he respected India’s own “tradition and partnership with Russia,” the country cannot remain neutral while the war is ongoing.
“I would be very glad, and it would even help in our relationship, if India at least finds clear language and says this is an aggression, it’s a one-sided aggression, it’s Putin’s war,” Habeck said.
Habeck is one of the leaders of the Green Party in Germany, which has been maybe the biggest proponent of war, as well as a more aggressive German foreign policy tied to the US in general. This has all been disastrous for Germany so far.
Meanwhile, India has faced this pressure since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict and has continually said it will not change its position. Yet, the West keeps trying. What could Habeck think has changed? That Russia’s stronger position in Ukraine would make India more likely to bail on its relationship with Moscow? That the diminished position of the collective West – and especially Germany – somehow gives him more bargaining chips?
I guess the German Greens didn’t get the message back in March when New Delhi hosted the G20 foreign ministers:
How Russian foreign minister Lavrov was welcomed in India vs German foreign minister Baerbock……
🤔 pic.twitter.com/u8mlsXvMC2— Richard (@ricwe123) March 4, 2023
Of course, Baerbock towards the end of last year joined the US in trying to pressure India to cut ties with Russia by using threats over Kashmir. With Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at her side, Baerbock said “Germany has a role and responsibility with regard to the situation of Kashmir. Therefore, we support intensively the engagement of the United Nations to find peaceful solutions in the region.”
India has stated for decades that the Kashmir issue must be solved bilaterally, so one would think that Baerbock knew what she was saying wouldn’t go over well. Her statements also came around the same time the U.S. State Department enraged India when it approved a $450 million deal to upgrade Pakistan’s F-16 fleet. They followed that up with the US ambassador to Pakistan creating more tension during a visit to the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir, which he called by its Pakistani name instead of the United Nations-approved name “Pakistan-administered Kashmir.”
And soon after that US State Department spokesman Ned Price lectured India on what are in its best interests:
We’ve also been clear that now is not the time for business as usual with Russia, and it’s incumbent on countries around the world to do what they can to lessen those economic ties with Russia. That’s something that’s in the collective interest, but it’s also in the bilateral interest of countries around the world to end and certainly over the course of time to wean their dependence on Russian energy. There have been a number of countries that have learned the hard way of the fact that Russia is not a reliable source of energy. Russia is not a reliable supplier of security assistance. Russia is far from reliable in any realm. So it is not only in the interest of Ukraine, it is not only in the interest of the region, of the collective interests that India decrease its dependence on Russia over time, but it’s also in India’s own bilateral interest, given what we’ve seen from Russia.
Nonetheless, India has remained firm in its refusal to join the West’s Russia isolation efforts.
It’s hard to see how Germany’s ongoing insistence on the issue will help with the trade deal the two sides have been trying to get done for years and which is gaining importance in Germany due to its derisking policy from China – its current largest trading partner.
While a deal could certainly benefit New Delhi, it’s made clear it’s not going to be pressured on the Russia issue. What Berlin refuses to understand is that India is in a position of strength – not the other way around. India is the one with a growing economy who is profiting off of selling Russia oil to the Europeans. Habeck, unsurprisingly isn’t happy about that and had this to say, according to The Hindustan Times:
Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine haven’t banned trade in Russian oil, but providing more funds to Russia or “using this sanctions system to benefit from it is not the idea of it,” Habeck told reporters on the margins of an Indo-German Business Forum.
Asked about India not joining the price cap imposed on Russia oil by the G7, Habeck replied, “The sanctions system means that we haven’t banned the trade of oil, but there’s a price cap on it. That means that you are allowed to buy crude oil and refine it, this is within the sanctions system, but making money out of it, bringing more money to Russia, using this sanctions system to benefit from it is not the idea of it.”
He added: “So, I ask all democracies worldwide not to use the sanctions system to give more credit, more money to Russia that they can fuel their war in Ukraine.”
Habeck is essentially saying that Germany gets to decide on not only its own disastrous energy and foreign policy but also make India follow suit. And India says ‘we appreciate your input but no thank you.’
And why would they? The German economy is in freefall, but the Greens just don’t seem to care about the German economy. Baerbock announced as much last year when she said she would continue to support Ukraine “no matter what German voters think.”
Well, according to polls voters are thinking Baerbock and Habeck need to go. The anti-EU, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany is surging in the polls while the Greens plummet, largely due to public dissatisfaction with the government’s policy towards Ukraine and Russia and the economic costs of those decisions. A record high of 71 percent of the German public are not satisfied with the work of the federal government, according to a recent Deutschlandtrend survey. Unfortunately for the German public, the next Bundestag election isn’t scheduled until late 2025.
Baerbock just recently penned a piece for The Guardian, declaring that Germany “can no longer stand back and hope for the best; instead we must be strong partners to those promoting peace and freedom.” It not only doubles down on the Russia policy but also continues to promote the idea of Germany taking on a much more aggressive foreign policy as what amounts to Washington’s attack dog:
Russia’s war of aggression has marked a rupture in the world. For my country, it has opened a new chapter, redefining how we seek to promote peace, freedom and sustainability in this world: as a partner that embraces its leadership.
But don’t worry, she’s doing it for the children, writing:
Just after the outbreak of the war, a schoolgirl in Vilnius, Lithuania, who lives only a short drive from the Russian and Belarussian borders, asked me: “Can we count on you?” I wholeheartedly answer: you can.
She’s fond of telling these stories of kids with worries that outgrow their years. At a speech last year at the New School in New York she dropped these gems:
Children are asking their parents now at breakfast: Mom, what exactly is a nuclear weapon? Others are saying: I really like NATO.
It’s a dire sign that Baerbock and her fellow Atlanticists see such “encounters” as inspirational rather than a reason to step back and examine their dangerous game of brinkmanship.
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Notes on “aggressor” and “victim,” or in Italian aggressore e aggredito (note that both are in the masculine grammatical gender, as Paesi, countries).
If Baerbock and Halbeck are so genuinely concerned about the aggressori e aggrediti of this world, then the first order of business is to hand over those five trillion euro that the Polish government wanted to shake down from them some months back.
No? Oh!
Maybe there are other historical factors and historical actors at work. Maybe countries have interests. Maybe there is some strategy to be had besides “Ukraine is the abused woman of Europe” (the so-called feminist foreign policy).
And while we are on aggressori e aggrediti, remind me of who took advantage of Iraq, Syria, Libya, and, yes, even Iran.
I’d also argue that the rather slippery concept of The Personal Is the Political has now metastasized into international relations as a mirror of bad domestic relationships. Somehow, that doesn’t seem like the correct metaphor. But it does accord with Hillary Clinton Die-Hardism.
I will also point out that in dealing with aggressori e aggrediti, one must factor in the fascistoid Maidan coup of 2014 and the genuine fears of Russian speakers in Ukraine. Oh? Do tell, Baerbock…
DJG:
Thanks as always for an illuminating and encouraging comment.
> Maybe countries have interests.
Well, when these countries’ governments have been completely usurped by one or more “industrial complexes”, whose interests are truly being served?!
> I’d also argue that the rather slippery concept of The Personal Is the Political has now metastasized into international relations as a mirror of bad domestic relationships. Somehow, that doesn’t seem like the correct metaphor. But it does accord with Hillary Clinton Die-Hardism.
Hahaha! Right?! I suspect the use of the term “relationship” is a purposeful attempt to gloss over the real nature of relations between garden denizens and jungle denizens. The pretense of the West trying to woo Africa, Latin America and APAC into “seeing things from the Western perspective” is a weak attempt to mask the reality of sanctions and soft-coup “diplomacy”. The sustained stream of “Eff Off”s coming from the global south w.r.t. Ukraine is chicken soup for my soul.
these people only understand the language of force. Either legal (via bad election results) or economic (RU cutting ties with EU, China showing off their economic might) or military (threat of WWIII, destruction of 3 Ukrainian armies and killing Hundreds of Thousands of men in the course of this war).
Which makes Habeck&Baerbock&Friends (there are Dozens of them in the upper echelons of the party + political advisors!) appear even more hollow and corrupt because they have all originated as personnel in a Green Party that was built precisely on the post 68 ideals of:
cooperative and egalitarian principles AND RATIONAL DISCOURSE.
They have literally turned everything upside down.
And you
Can.not.talk.to.these.people.
It´s as if you were speaking to a wall.
Same thing with their supporters.
Darn!
I have been repeating myself since Febr. 2022
oh yeah…:
“step back and examine their dangerous game of brinkmanship.”
That´s funny!!!!
(The only move they are capable of is to accidently stumble, do a 360 degree “trick” and fall off the cliff)
btw government loyal papers still don´t see cause for concern over the economic consequences
These politicians were never bullied in school, where they?
More likely they were part of the “cool” clique that did the bullying…
I’m not good at reading people, but there are moments when Annalena gives me a certain vibe. Something like a Lil’ Miss-Straight-A’s, the shining star of her school or like that. Sometimes smug (“the Princess deigns to answer you”), sometimes weirdly insecure (“Did I answer right, teacher? say I did!”)
No way, Jose.
If you listen to her talking you hear empty head. Her empty bovine eyes are at par with Peter Sellers’ Clouseau blank stare.
She doesn’t have the capacity to get good grades.
She is apparently well (US) educated, but, that seems anymore to mean that those people do not live in the real world & are incapable of communicating in same.
They are psychopathic sociopathic fascists.
They care not for children.
Vilnius was the site of Jewish massacres and pogroms.
It was picked purposely.
For Germany never got rid of fascism.
Reinhardt Ghelen, the genocidal maniac under Hitler was put in charge of German intelligence for the W. German government directly after WWII.
The Dulles brothers.
We are living in the blowback
On the other hand, Blinken has a “my life is miserable & my soul is dead” glare, the affect that he has gone thru severe depression or is struggling with it. I think the Duran duo or someone covered that when he was age 9, Blinken’s mom tossed aside his dad and ran to France, taking Anthony along, to take up with a much richer man who she eventually married!! And Blinken as a political consiglieri has been a disaster from the get-go (daddy got him into the field), one of his first “accomplishments” was sending Mikey Dukakis in a helmet for a tank ride, and the whole campaign tanked starting with this absurd image. Blinken gives off the vibe of someone suffering complex PTSD from early childhood (I have a family member with this vibe so I recognize it), could’ve been bullied also. And an even clearer case was Trump sub Steven Miller. Born in ritzy Santa Monica, he was enraged starting in middle school & felt “bullied” by the “mean Libs” who didn’t agree that Latinos are inferior, blacks are beyond the pale (pun too easy not to use), Feminists are ugly & arrogant, gays are repugnant, etc. Nietzsche discussed “ressentiment” at length. Don’t forget also that Nixon was never one of the “cool guys,” he seethed with resentment at the handsome & patrician JFK (not entirely without reason). So politicos can learn to bully and dominate as victims or victimizers. I’m unsure if any consistent pattern could be shown.
The NYT just recently did the “think of the children” in an article, but they went further and found kids with cancer suffering under the evil Russian assault. That always sells.
Perhaps NYT should consider a follow-up piece discussing children with leukemia due to DU in the environment, or kids with artificial limbs due to mines and cluster munitions.
“Neutrality means taking the side of the aggressor.”
Where have I heard that before? “If you vote third-party, it’s the same as voting for Trump.”
My response was, “Fine. I’ll go ahead and vote for Trump then.” Maybe China should openly and actively support Russia’s war effort and see how the German Greens like that.
‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People — the Abridged Edition’
I’m sure that it is the same as George Bush’s “Either you are with us or against us.” I really don’t know anymore what to make of the present German leadership. None of them are fit to lead a great nation and seem determined to destroy Germany for what exactly? Being ‘morally’ right? Getting a pat on the head from Washington? Maybe lucrative career offers when they leave government? It is one thing to have ideological beliefs. But they way they go about it to other nations seems to resemble something out of an imperial past. They show up and start to dictate terms and throw around criticisms that verge on spiteful. When Baerbock was giving a speech in China in front of her hosts recently, when she criticized China she made sure to turn her head to face the the leader of the Chinese delegation as if to humiliate him. I can see why she is popular as Zelensky is these days but gawd, somebody should sell this lot a clue.
You’d have to include a 500 page animated cartoon operating manual with said clue.
“Neutrality means taking the side of the aggressor.” is the polite lefty way of saying “you’re either with us or against us.” I realized this the other day when someone was pushing this and I thought, “huh, this sounds a lot like W talking about how you’re either ‘with us or with the terrorists.’
George W Bush is also where you heard that before
John Foster Dulles was already saying similar things about neutralist countries in the 1950s.
“Neutrality means taking the side of the aggressor.”
Those perfidious Swedes, Swiss and other Nazi sympathizing neutral countries during WWII. Look at the disaster, these “not reflecting the real situation” countries became. Oh wait, it didn’t quite turn out this way…
You’re either with us or against us. (George W Bush)
Those three-letter-agency assets disguised as Ministers who do policy on behalf of a little girl in Vilnius are some of most pathetic examples of the degradation of the globalist elitist castes bullying everyone in and outside Germany (digi_owl credible suspicions).
Anecdotically yesterday met a German who works in Spain providing insurance services in Germany and seemed quite unhappy with the current government. I didn’t want him to expand. Enough for a first meeting.
With every successive word-salad served-up by these two pitiable clowns (clones?) I squirm with ever-increasing embarrassment on behalf of their once-great nation, with its unsurpassed cultural legacy, Germany. How Bismarck must be spinning in his grave!
But then I remind myself that they were elected by Germans, and I despair.
“. . . they were elected by Germans. . . ”
I do not believe that the Greens have received more than 25% of the vote in national elections and I wonder how much of the Greens’ slide is due to their pro-war stance.
Germany has a history of putting truly vapid people into high office despite them never winning close to a majority.
I do not believe that the Greens have received more than 25% of the vote in national elections…
About 15% actually, here’s the link (in German, the Greens are “Bündnis 90/Die Grünen”)
https://www.bundestag.de/parlament/wahlen/ergebnisse_seit1949-244692
I have no idea why and how they hold so much sway, but it is what it is.
I’ve been thinking since this started that German Green founder Petra Kelly, who was no fan of NATO, must be spinning in her grave at the speed of a uranium-enrichment centrifuge.
A Green party that does not understand the power of Greenback diplomacy. Just like what Biden did with Erdogan, these guys should come with a 200 billion dollars interest free loan that’s payable over say the next 100 years? Modi will switch sides faster than you can say US Dollar. Germans can’t print dollars you say? That’s what the Eurodollar system is for, if things blow up later, you can always call the Fed to patch things up, no problem. /s
Modi will switch sides when he gets a majority of the Green $ from the Greens hits his personal Swiss bank account.
I am not saying Modi is incorruptible, but he has no wife nor children, and he’s pretty much a god in India, what will he ever do with a Swiss bank account? I am sure if he needs anything, he can call his good buddy, Gautam Adani. Even with the later’s troubles this year, he is still a very rich man.
I think this is more Hail Mary time. They lost the Global South. Much like dispatching Kissinger, this is an attempt to pull out a win before the collapse. If they can just get India…
Whatever Modi’s flaws, I don’t think being for sale to white people is one of them
Perhaps, but only for long enough for the cash to arrive in the Indian treasury.
In any case, Modi would ask for gold (Does Fort Knox have any gold?)
Why should India keeps its word when the west never does? Which is probably why that offer never happened.
Deranged people. And think of how it must seem to countries like India where the west tells them that Russia is not a reliable source of energy… you know, the west who blew up the Russian pipeline telling India that the victim of the terrorist attack is not a reliable source of gas. I don’t even think western leaders are smart enough to understand the utter irony of the stupid things they say in public.
Children are now asking their parents at breakfast “Mom, is the European ruling class completely brain-dead?” Others are saying “I really like AfD”.
😂
I wonder though if the German parents would be able to answer “yes” to the first question and explain the second statement.
The propaganda in Germany is total. I have never seen anything like it.
Great moniker :)
I forgot where i read it, but someone said: “the Russians are not having an existential crisis, its NATO that is having the existential crisis”. …………… this is becoming all so surreal.
NATO has had an existential crisis since 1991.
Registration required, but you can read the first paragraph in the preview. That didn’t last very long, did it? At the time I thought something to the effect, “At last! The “West” won and will start acting the grownup.” But I can be a bit too hopeful. Still, when the Warsaw Pact died, all justification for NATO died along with it. The expansion of NATO eastward will be understood as the biggest political blunder in history one of these days. That is, if we have any history, and historians, in the future. A 50:50 proposition at best.
lol. good find.
i remember those days.
my crazy ex-wife was actually at the berlin wall when it fell…ive got the chunk of it she stuck in her pocket.
soon after…and after i ran her off…i was boning up on history, etc(pre-internet)….and remember coming to the conclusion that NATO should rightly be dismantled, now that the Cold War is over and History, herself, has ended.
I was angry when Trump started saying the same thing, circa 2015.
is Habek a WEF clone, too?
I know Annalena is….(and she has a job if she wants one…farm hand/yard art…keep her out of trouble—room and board and an intense ethical education).
what a bunch of maroons!….exemplars of the bubble-dwelling mirror-gazing set.
the sooner they can be shuffled off into doing something useful, the better.
For extra funsies, The Warsaw pact (1955) was in reaction to NATO (1949)…
“peace dividend”……sigh. Just another (double?) unicorn.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
If you were a dedicated green the last thing you would support is a war which delays implementation of green infrastructure and generates massive green house gas generation. I would take a very close look at the German green party especially their donors.
Ben: If you were a dedicated green the last thing you would support is a war which … generates massive green house gas generation
And that is causing ecocide generally, especially with depleted uranium spread across Ukraine’s landscape, too, which will happen when some of the toys the West has given Ukraine get taken out of their boxes.
As for Germany’s ‘Atlanticists,’ the words of John Harington (1561 – 1612) apply: –
Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.
The pitiful thing, of course, is that the American empire is failing and the sort of payday available to Tony Blair likely won’t be there for Habeck, Baerbock, and company. But if you told them this and walked them through all the evidence for why that is, they wouldn’t change course. Because this is all they have: where else can they go and what else would they do with their pitiful intellects and skills? Germany has a government of Liz Trusses.
Hypocrisy means nothing to sociopaths.
It appears they are only green on the outside with a rotten core on the inside.
Very sad to hear to pure trash that comes from these bums. I think they are the biggest cons in history by saying we are the only ones you can trust when everyone knows they are the last ones you should trust. The death and destruction they are doing to all of the children of the world and they have the audacity to claim someone else is hurting the children of the world and that they really think NATO is the answer. I still believe deep down not everyone in these countries is as evil as their leaders but that belief and hope is fading every day the citizens of all of the countries of the West continue to allow them to represent their interests. As an American, I try to spread the word but it is hard and has cost me many relationships and friendships but still believe it is worth it.
I think their audience is the White House. Not India and not the German people. This is an affirmation of fealty to the High Table of the Empire (sorry for the John Wick metaphor but it feels appropriate).
Their own personal interests are also aligned with doing this. Lots of future job opportunities and ego boosting roles are available at the behest of the empire.
Of course, just as with the High Table in John Wick, it is a tricky game. The Empire’s High Table is fickle and changes its tune. Ben Wallace seems to have discovered that being overly zealous can have its downsides. Perhaps these German politicians will eventually discover the same thing.
I don’t remember Baerbock, Habeck, or Germany sticking up for the “victim” in Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, or Syria. It seems they were firmly aligned with the “aggressor” in those conflicts.
Same sentiment applies with at least equal force to the breakup of Yugoslavia. Germany (Kohl as Chancellor at the time) through its precipitous recognition of Slovakia’s independence was among the principal instigators (and note that Slovakia had been an eager toady – a virtual protectorate – of the Third Reich and its ideology, and all that went with that, during WW II). I can’t recall the details but I’m certain that Germany was an ardent advocate and supporter of NATO’s subsequent infamous attack on Serbia.
Sorry, for “Slovakia” please read “Slovenia” – which is the province of former Yugoslavia my comments were intended to relate-to (though some of them could well I believe be applied to Slovakia as well, that’s irrelevant).
All of coastal Slovenia, Koper and Trieste at the time, were given to the Italians along with Istria after WW I. Germany actually invaded what is now Slovenia in 1941 as the Nazis sought to solidify their southern flank prior to Barbarossa. It was one of the main reasons that the invasion of the Soviet Union was delayed so far into June.
You may be thinking of the fascist Ustashe in Croatia. They were put in charge by the Germans after the Yugoslav army was vanquished. I spent a summer living in the Julian Alps around Cerkno. We visited a museum near there that covered the history of the fierce underground movement in Slovenia. I can guarantee you that the Nazis did not consider the Slovenes “toadies.”
Gregorio: Mentioning this in polite company or online comments sections of, say, “Der Spiegel” will immediately elicit accusations of whataboutism. They also don’t see any irony in demanding Putin to be tried before the ICC, a court the US doesn’t even recognize for fear US presidents might end up there.
If India wasn’t reselling Russian oil, the economies in Europe would be in a Depression at this very moment and every world leader knows it.
Also, someone had to do the job of reselling Russian oil or the war effort would have be impossible to fund and sustain in the first place.
There is no leverage to be had on the topic of reselling Russian oil, from Germany or any other NATO member.
I admire the patience of PM Modi and the Indian government in not excoriating these clowns. I probably would have told the Germans that talks will be considered once the West returns all of the artifacts it has stolen from India.
“Educated fools from uneducated schools.” ~ Curtis Mayfield
I disagree with Dr. Hudson that the US set out initially to destroy Europe. I think the plan was to make Europe dependent on a US controlled Ukraine/dismembered Russia. Failure to see that by European leaders is somewhat understandable. The current failure to see that the US plan failed and now it is willing to sacrifice “old Europe” completely to mitigate the damage of failure to itself is unforgivable.
Problem with bullies is they cannot stop. Instead, to keep their primacy, they have to double down and find new duties and obligations to be met. And those that have been bullied find It difficult to say “No” and reproduce the behaviour like this Germán couple in India or China. The current crop of EU politicians has been wasted and Europe Will keep on degrading herself at least untill full replacement of the current crop.
I have no idea, but Baerbock seems to parrot CIA/BND/MI6 narratives a bit too closely. Since the BND is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the CIA, I would not be surprised if she is on payroll, or getting large sums deposited in an offshore account
Germany’s vassal status is as prominent as ever. They are still occupied by US military, and take orders from the CIA.
Recall that Merkel’s “Handy” (mobile phone) was tapped by the US NSA for years. The BND knew about it and did not inform her, according to documents released by Wikileaks. The CIA/BND also tapped phones of other “allies” (vassals of US empire).
This is also a great example where mass media outlets used Wikileaks for breaking stories, yet do nothing to stop the torture and imprisonment of Julian Assange. Free press?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/08/nsa-tapped-german-chancellery-decades-wikileaks-claims-merkel
Oh look, Habeck stood up to the big bad China, gave China a stern talking-to, oh the COURAGE! The chutzpah! So very convincing! My respect for this person increases momentously. Not.
But, for this, China in turn gains credibility and respectability on the international stage – look, the patient parent tolerating a child’s silly and misguided lecturing, nodding and patting said child on the head, gently sending them on their way, it’s past their bedtime.
This distinctively Western “chihuahua diplomacy” really is quite embarrassing.
At the Delhi G-20 meetup, Sergei Lavrov (standing in for Vladimir Putin) got a red carpet reception while Annalena Baerbock got what appeared to be a snub. The German Ambassador later claimed her plane was early. OK then!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbP-gABDY0A
> They followed that up with the US ambassador to Pakistan creating more tension during a visit to the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir, which he called by its Pakistani name instead of the United Nations-approved name “Pakistan-administered Kashmir.” <
Pakistan uses name Azad Jammu and Kashmir, where Azad means "free", with the implication that the other, India-administered part, is not free. Thus using that name is a declaration that Pakistani position is the correct one, which may be the case (or not), but it is bound to antagonize India. Modi is intensely nationalistic, so he surely made a note of it. I still think that Modi is business first, and neutrality has distinct business advantages to India, but that gave him a strong secondary reason to go for "neutrality". Hindustani Times channel at YouTube airs translated video materials from Russian ministry of defense, so India English-language media are surely to dominated by the West.
Recently it was commented that shortly after visiting D.C., Indian government declared that it is not interested in BRICS currency issue. With Russians depositing balances for oil sales in rupee-denominated accounts, Indian rupee has decent stability and indeed, no need for BRICS currency. I view it for a freebie that consoles American Administration and helps India avoiding sanctions for its neutrality. I was also dubious if BRICS currency can fly, given how far BRICS members are from each other in their economic situation, transacting in national currencies can be good enough.
Poor little Annalena. The western leaders give her this crap to say because she’s too dim to be embarrassed by the whole situation. She probably doesn’t have a clue how she makes everybody cringe. She’s a good example of western duplicity – never tell the whole truth. That way nobody can put too fine a point on it. Which is why the Russians have stopped talking to us altogether. I think it would be very refreshing to have a completely open forum with the only requirement that the blunt truth always be spoken. Because it would be exponentially less blunt than a fleet of Kinzhals hitting Ramstein. But, who cares, right Annalena?
The Green ministers can sleep safe, knowing that all the legacy German parties will do whatever it takes to keep the AfD (or any other political force that is not subservient to the United States) from power.
They accuse the AFD of being Nazis and violating the constitution. Kind of like how we are dealing with MAGA except in Germany there is a government division devoted to doing it…..the Verfassungschutz. The AFD has to watch itself or it will be outlawed.
And let’s not forget Daleep Singh’s (he of economic sanctions fame) warning to India:
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/us-deputy-nsa-daleep-singh-cautions-india-against-trade-deals-with-russia/article65277933.ece/amp/
And India’s response:
https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/us-deputy-nsa-daleep-singhs-threats-of-consequences-point-to-a-fissure-within-joe-biden-administration-on-india-10510802.html/amp
And the Indian External Affairs Minister’s responses to a journalist at a conference when questioned on Ukraine:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j2EdQD_Eag0
Yes, and the choice of Singh, who IIRC was not very experienced and of not a very high rank relative to the Indian officials he was meeting, I believe was seen as pandering: “Oh, we’ll send the Indian to deliver the discipline to India.”
I find it weird that FirstPost plays him up as influential. A deputy director of the NEC, for instance, is just not that important a job. Useful for revolving door because meetings you sat in but not much else.
Does anybody outside the EU really care what happens to Germany economically? The rest of the EU only care because Germany funds the thing.
What is going on at the highest levels of the German Gov’t is beyond belief. Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock have destroyed the German economy by shutting out Russian gas and importing US and other gas at 3 to 8 times the cost of Russian gas. The German economy is now migrating from two quarters of recession to a depression. Deindustrialisation is clearly under way in Germany. The lack of a French style upriising does not surprise me. I have German relatives who are overeducated and peforming in international trade in German Gov’t affiliated investment banks. They claim that Germany is relatively powerful and will come through this without lasting damage. We appear to be living in a fantasy financialised economy era where nothing has substance so nothing matters. The late Chairman Mao Tse-Tung claimed that the “West” was a paper tiger, little has changed since 1976.
It is easy to underestimate the effort the US has made over the last 70 years in shaping Germany. It goes far beyond the Marshall plan: one has to understand that it was the hotspot of the cold war and Western G was the shopping window presented both to the east and to internal socialism. The influence on WG by the US was not only in economics, military matters and politics but most importantly in the cultural realm: the media were explicitely given the choice between pure transatlanticism or obliteration, hundreds of pro US book prize funds and more obscure foundations permeate all the intellectual landscape in Germany.
The result is to be seen today in cringey Habeck and Baerbock, they represent perfectly my GenX brethrens who are for the most part completely brainwashed by ‘democracy=capitalism= freedom’.
Note the difference in perception by the eastern germans up to today on all matters.
I was born in the GDR and we moved to the west in 1980. Even as a kid I was thouroughly shocked by the self- righteoughness and arrogance by my new schoolmates. They were so deeply infused with a fantasy version of the GDR that they truly believed that I just escaped Mordor. This was in such a stark contrast to even the GDR version of the komsomolsk where not many illusions where held regarding poltics.
This is probably the quintessence of the masterful manipulation : establish a pseudodiverse media landscape which in truth is at its core monolithical but which can be presented as ‘ free’.
So the WGermans were explaining to me at lenght how life in the GDR was and my real life testimo’y was brushed aside as being ‘disinformed’.
A few years later we moved to Northern Africa wher I lived for 10 years. Back to Germany I was exposed to the same prejudiced and extremely negative opinions about the reality of life in a muslim country in which they never had set foot.
This was even more pronounced in more academic circles, it seemed to me that the more ‘ intellectual’ someone is the more they are convinced of being well informed.
This is what I see today in the political establishment of Germany: so deeply infiltrated by transatlanticism over 3 generations that they have completely absorbed their hegemons credo. Masterful socio-engeniering by the US I have to admit.
There’s a diminishing number of German politicians with their intellectual and moral roots in Vienna, Berlin and Weimar, and an increasing number with their intellectual and moral roots in Washington, Langley and the beer halls of Munich. The majority of post-war generation felt contempt, anger and sadness for the previous generation’s role in the Third Reich, and their political successors, for some ungodly reason, venerate them. It is the only explanation I can think of for the rise to power of the Habeck’s, Baerbock’s and van der Loony’s of the present generation.