BERLIN, 7 Dec. (DPA/EP) –
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted on Wednesday that she made mistakes managing a deterrence policy towards Russia during her tenure as head of the German Government and lamented that “she should have reacted more quickly to Russian aggressiveness”.
Thus, he was referring to the Ukrainian peninsula’s occupation of Crimea in 2014, when Moscow announced its annexation of this territory and NATO member states agreed to spend two percent of their Gross Domestic Product on defense.
“Germany has yet to hit the two percent target despite the increase,” Merkel insisted before clarifying that “she made no speeches in support of this,” something she now believes she should have done.
However, the then chancellor had ruled out that it was a mistake to approve construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which runs from Russia to Germany and is now defunct.
Merkel has clarified that banning the project would “dangerously worsen the climate with Russia” and has stated that dependence on Russian gas “is due not only to this project but to the fact that less gas is supplied from Norway, Britain and the Netherlands”.
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