... new global role mainly in opposition to the West — both in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe. A policy of “compartmentalization” — i.e. to separate areas of agreement from those of disagreement — has reached its limits for instance in Syria. The new volatile and confusing strategic context in which both Germany and Russia operate is wider, bigger and fraught with far more intricacies and challenges.
In this new strategic context, Germany’s Russia policy has to take on responsibility beyond its immediate neighbourhood — as in Ukraine — for international ...
... residing in Germany. With hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria taken in, the German government could ‘legitimately’ claim to represent the interests of part of the Syrian population during negotiations on the post-conflict settlement in Syria. Germany today has a historic chance to circumvent Turkey as a difficult regional partner and secure a foothold in the Middle East through economic and political involvement in the stabilisation and reconstruction of Syria.
Germany’s Southern corridor ...
... Turks and, of course, the Syrians. This is much more difficult than agreement among external players.
Will recent progress in Syria lead to progress on the conflict in Ukraine?
My take is that the two issues should be kept separate, because both are very ... ... at the Russian community here in Berlin. Look at the number of joint ventures. Look at the number of students from Russia in Germany. Look at the European small and medium-sized business engaged in Russia. Look at our cultural and historical linkages....
... Syria outside the framework of UNSC, Angela Merkel and the then President of France Nicolas Sarkozy advocated the idea of creating a “Friends of Syria” group, whose activities were supposed to be focused on rendering all-round support to Syrian opposition. Germany became a co-chair (together with UAE) of the working sub-group for economic recovery and development of the “Friends of Syria” group, initiating the work aimed at the establishment of the trust fund for financing the opposition in ...
... according to
FRONTEX
, in the period 2010-2014 the majority of migrants heading to EU countries came from Syria, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Eritrea and Serbia. In light of these data, why did Germany decide to open the doors only to Syrian refugees?
Based on Syrian presence in Germany, the integration of the Syrians is easier than that of refugees from other countries, having a better level of education and being considered as a valuable professional resource. According to
World Bank
data, in 2010 Syria received approximately ...
