BERLIN, January 24. /TASS/. Ex-German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder (held the post in 1998-2005) has spoken in favor of restoring Europe’s energy cooperation with Russia.
"There has been a lot of talks about military capabilities, but what our country and Europe need are peacekeeping capabilities in the first place. That’s why I continue to believe that what I promoted during my tenure as the chancellor was right," Schroder said in an article for Berliner Zeitung, adding that he still suggests focusing on "reliable and stable supplies of cheap fuel from Russia" combined with Germany’s modern technologies in gas prospecting and transportation.
"It would be absurd to try to belittle this. On the contrary, we need such forms of cooperation with Russia," he said.
Speaking about the situation in Ukraine, the former chancellor urged to use all diplomatic tools to resolve the conflict. In his opinion, "the escalatory dynamics needs to stop in order to prevent the conflict from spreading."
"However, I’m also against demonizing Russia as a perpetual enemy. Russia is not a barbaric country, it’s a country of rich culture, with diverse historical ties to Germany. The fact that the country was brutally attacked by German soldiers during the two world wars remains ‘the shame of Germany.’ For that reason, he have a special commitment to promote peace between Russia and Ukraine," Schroeder said.
"That is why we should abandon the rhetoric of an arms race, which is harmful and creates deeper divisions instead of building bridges," he said, adding that it significantly weakened Germany’s potential role of a mediator in the conflict.
Germany began to abandon supplies of Russian energy resources in February 2022. Germany does not receive gas via the Nord Stream pipelines either as both gas pipelines were damaged in 2022 as a result of sabotage in the Baltic Sea. Before that one of them had not been certified by the German side. In the current situation, the government is counting on the construction of terminals for receiving LNG.