Germany Set for Low Profile at NATO Summit
Relations between Berlin and Washington, the alliance's driving force, are still frosty over Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's anti-war rhetoric during his successful reelection campaign, even if both sides claim the ice has been broken.
Hence no plans for a meeting between the chancellor and U.S. President George W. Bush, although they are bound to meet informally on the margins, AFP reported.
In any case, Schroeder has other concerns: Germany's economy is in a mess, its budget is stretched to the limit, the European commission is taking action over the excessive budget deficit and his poll ratings have plunged to new lows.
Which all make it difficult for Berlin to respond when NATO asks European members to raise defense spending to counter the new threats facing the world today, primarily terrorism.
"I wouldn't expect Germany to have much power to shape NATO," said Henning Riecke, of the German Council on Foreign Relations.
"We have no money to bring our military up to NATO standards. We are a long way back in that area," he told AFP.
The two-day summit in Prague, beginning Thursday, gathers some 40 heads of state and government and dozens of ministers.
The 19-member alliance is expected to give the green light for up to seven former communist states to join.
While they will doubtless celebrate, NATO is grappling with a wide range of problems, including Europe's stark military weakness compared with the United States and the threat of U.S.-led military action against Iraq.
Germany is intimately involved in both areas of the debate.
For the best part of half a century it stood on NATO's front line, looking warily at a well-armed ideological foe to the east. It still effusively thanks Washington for protecting its interests in the Cold War.
But during campaigning for September's election, Schroeder angered Bush by ruling out any German role in an attack on Iraq and suggesting the plans were ill-judged and lacking a proper post-war scenario.
It took U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld until 10 days ago to pronounce relations "unpoisoned" and for Schroeder finally to speak to Bush.
The chancellor obviously still has work to do to figure on the president's must-see list for Prague.
"Embarrassing," according to Riecke.
As for spending, Defense Minister Peter Struck set the tone last week when he said Germany's financial problems meant it could not afford to pay for the massive step-up in its own capabilities it needs to meet NATO standards. "I am not going to promise NATO castles in the air," he told Parliament. "I cannot justify it and I do not want to justify it."
The United States, Britain and NATO Chief George Robertson have all called on European states, particularly Germany, to pull more of their weight.
"A clever diplomacy is needed which would be based on the readiness to put more resources into the Bundeswehr," the German army, Riecke said. But he thought that unlikely given the precarious state of public finances. "You can be sure Germany will be keeping a low profile there."
Instead, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer wants the alliance to take on a more political role.
"Crisis prevention is as important as crisis reaction," he told Parliament last week, saying a purely military response was doomed to long-term failure.
One of the other key proposals at the summit is a U.S. idea for a NATO rapid reaction force, to which Fischer set out three conditions.
They are that any deployment would be agreed unanimously by member states; the German Parliament would decide on any German role; and it would not double up with EU plans for its own rapid reaction force.