which are, of course, the social democrats, the greens and the f t p. so peter, by, i am correct in saying that you are still the trans atlantic coordinator. how come that is correct? m, how come? i don't know. i'm still be in this position, sir, since april 2018. and i think the, the reason for the 2 reasons is only that the coalition, which is now government. germany has not yet agreed on a successor to me. so i'm, i still have that position. what kind of signals are you guessing from germany's trans atlantic partners since sunday? because we mustn't forget that essentially we'll have shorts in his declaration to parliament in this special session on sunday. since he turned round decades of a german principles, when it comes to foreign and security policy, he announced a massive in boost for defense spending. he also said that germany was from now on going to adhered to the 2 percent nato goal. how did that go down in washington

and in other countries? there was a, you know, we've kind of big sigh of relief said finally. finally, the germans understand that freedom doesn't come without costs. you have to invest and not only on a more level, but really with money you have to contribute to have to step up to your own security interests. and let me at that, i think that way too long. germany has done 2 things wrongly. first we have, we were hiding behind our own history set, well, germany weapons out of territory, emissions. very dangerous. it's not the right thing to do that was wrong. and 2nd thing, which i think we completely misunderstood, stood for many years, is that the germans would not support, would not understand that if we increased tremendously, our defense spendings in the evil weapons as they are perceived,

many times may be bad, but people. but i think that was wrong. i think we have taken what he stepped up, much earlier turn to our own citizens, explained the stability, the peace and prosperity that we all enjoy. 82000000 germans in this country does not come from for from, for out of the blue sky. it has to do with security. and we cannot always rely on others that they spend their taxpayers mine that they invest in our security that we have to take up their own, our own responsibility. i think if we would have turned to our citizen earlier, they would have understood that. no, you just said that germany did too little too late and that it looks as though it was wrong for germany to essentially only go for diplomacy and not increase defense spending. for example, implicitly you are criticizing anglo michael as the german chancellor who was in

office for 16 years. did uncle michael's russia strategy fail? i don't know if it failed. he was. she had a very close relationship, not like friendship, but a close relationship and a good connection to vladimir putin. but he moved putin as we all know. he speaks german, former german chancellor mega is fluent and russian. that helped in many situations of tensions, of crisis. so i think she had all reason to use that to use this and i would not say she tried to. she did appeasement policy politics. but in the ends it was not successful. we have to admit that i think also if we, if we look to put in over time he, as a person, as an individual changed. there's always this, you know, people are referring to this speech that he hold here in the parliament some years

ago. i think it was 2007 or 5 or something where he made an offer, allegedly, to us to the west that we did not receive. i don't know really if that was true, but i think for a fact we can see the development even during the, in the course of the past weeks off. let me put in if you, if you look to french president mccall who also met at the kremlin is and famous long table. it was saying, i think he also was published on that saying, well, he was sitting in front of a changed russian president as a person. so i go back, i think she was, she was right to do the things she did. but for example, if you take notes for him to this, the bought. ready exceed gas pipe gas pipeline from russia to germany. the ukraine . exactly. i think it was wrong together. i together with some, with a, with an overtime. increasing group of parliamentarians from my old party were

criticizing that. i say we have to stop that because 1st we don't need it. the gas, we have to diversify it, you know, increase. it increases dangerously, the dependency on russia. she was not so much believing in that. so also a good decision. now that this government has put a hold to know seem to yes, mistake, happy, nate, but in hindsight, you are always much smarter than, than in the situation you have to make decisions. if we're talking about who made mistakes in the past, we also have to talk about gach would as role. now, a former chancellor who had very close ties with flooding putin when he was chancellor and who kept those ties. intensive height, those ties and took up important positions after he was no longer chancellor, with russian companies, gaps, florida to this day has still not distanced himself. he has condemned for it is going on currently in ukraine. but there are now speculations that if gaps florida

doesn't distance himself and pulls out of all these obligations with russian companies that he might even be put on sanctions let. should he be put on sanctions . let's get get true. as a total embarrassment for my country for germany, he is a russian lobbyist. he gets a lot of money for what he's doing as a russian lobbyist for, for energy companies that is not running, but he's sitting in prominent positions, a position that that he occupies there. and as we've seen recently, some of his former employees have voluntary step down that we don't want to work with him anymore because he has not distance himself from learning putin, from the politics and has not the so these employees now former employees of yard rhoda has taken up the consequences and one would actually expect a former statesman, a former as chancellor, the 4th largest economy in the world called germany,

to take up the responsibility and to be brave enough, but to show some responsibility at all to, to show that he has learned nobody would blame him for learning to say, i'm quitting all my responsibilities, all position that a whole in russian companies. i don't know if he has still not understood that. i don't know what's going on with his men, but again, it's a total embarrassment. think. should he be put on sanctions lift apart from him having being the german chancellor before everybody who, who still supports this regime, this dictatorship, this warlord called running a put in has to face consequences. can you confirm that in washington that were ideas to put them on sanctions list? i couldn't neither confirm nor deny what is germany, news hounds, an investment and engagement in military operations and the willingness to

boost our army. what does that mean for other strategically important regions? if we look at other crises that are still going on, the bond is there is also engaged in molly, in the sa hill. and those mandates are running out very soon. so will this new willingness by germany to be active and to have a strong military again, will that have consequences for japanese engagement? and molly, decisions have to be made there. there's, there soon coming. so there are a voices here that are saying where we have to re concentrate, refocused more and the defense on the original a task of the been this way to defend this country. if that is the final word and that i doubt that. but what i, what i, what i, after the understand underline is rethink our concepts. it has to do with money, but it is not only about money,

it's good to have no more money available soon. but what do we do with that? how do we spent that wisely, also in close coordination with our nato allies, with a partners and also you're right, we have, everything's understandably overshadowed now by the you, the russia, russia war on ukraine. but we also have not to take completely out of focus other regions. you mentioned molly, i showed it in the pacific. i mean, and the americans were blamed just 2 or 3 months ago by who are obsessed with china and taiwan and south china sea in the pacific issue. navy, there were obsessed, but they were right in, put, to alerting us to this region more than ever before. and the government also did german government should not take this out of perspective loose that out of

focus. we should still understand that we need to have a presence in the, in the pacific, in the south china sea to stabilize this where also has a strong signal to a like minded states in the region. and don't, nobody should live under the illusion that's china's not watching how the west is acting, the situation with russia, ukraine wall, how afraid are you of a well was coming out of a world war 3? i'm not afraid of that there, but we, we, we need to be at least very concerned about the nuclear threat that comes from roscoe. that is really serious. i'm not thinking about a nuclear strike on berlin for example. and so, but the option is that we have to be smart in how we publicly deal with a situation, what, what messages we sent to kremlin to the kremlin, until the vladimir putin. we should not corner,

let me put in too much. if this guy is cornered that he doesn't, that, that he thinks he has nothing else to lose. and he has no other options as well. it doesn't matter. i am not losing anything. then that is a very, very dangerous situation, and we need to be aware of that situation. it's serious. we would have lot of intelligent information from our services as well as from intelligent service of a friends that the situation is, as i just indicated, much, much more going on. so that is something that people should be concerned off world war 3. i doubt that that is the reason if you looked at the state of the union speech of us present, joe biden, the last one where he addressed that. and he he again sat that there will be no u. s. or even nato troops on the grounds. and no compet fighters

plains over ukraine. i'm so because that would mean nato and the west, we would be part of this war act asleep, combating a joe biden said that is not going to happen. but natal will defend natal member countries hit a via transatlantic coordinator for the german government. thank you very much. thank you very much. shlou where i come from. we have to fight for a free press and was born and raised in a military dictatorship with just one tv channel and a few newspapers with official information. as a journeys, i have work on the trip up many cameras, and their problems are always the same. for do socially inequality, a lack of the freedom of the press,

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d. w. ah, ah. this is a w news lie from the ukraine and russia hold a 2nd round of talks in battle, rose a cease fire and humanitarian corridor on the agenda in the south. if you credit for city of cast song falls to russian troops, several other cities including the capital key, remain under attack. also on the program, more than a 1000000 civilians have not flight you crying to view any warning. this is just the beginning of bringing the latest from the border with.