Orkhan Sattarov, head of the European bureau of Vestnik Kavkaza
The question on the support of the U.S. possible military intervention in Syria has split the European family. Germany appears in a difficult, even humiliating situation. At the G20 summit in St. Petersburg German Chancellor Angela Merkel didn’t sign the American statement which demanded “a strong international response” to the use of a chemical weapon by the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria. Merkel decided to achieve development of the all-European position on the problem and left St. Petersburg on Friday to take part in the meeting of the foreign ministers of the EU in Vilnius. However, right after Merkel’s departure, four major European states (the UK, France, Spain, and Italy) signed – supposedly without agreement of the German side – the American statement and didn’t wait for results of the meeting between ministers in Vilnius. Thus, Germany appeared to be the only European state of the G20, which didn’t support the Americans at the summit. But in a day Germany signed the statement in hindsight, fearing for being an outcast among the Europeans.
The behavior of the four major EU partners who actually let Germany down was sensitively accepted by the Chancellor who was preparing for the elections to Bundestag. Speaking at an pre-election event in Dusseldorf, Merkel indirectly accised other major countries of the EU of selfishness. “I don’t think it is normal that five major countries adopt a common statement without other 23 countries, knowing that all 28 states would gather in 24 hours,” Merkel said. “So, I said: let’s do our best for the development of a common position of 28 states,” she added.
Nevertheless, Berlin gave Washington necessary political support, and the incident will hardly have serious consequences. The case in interesting because it demonstrates nervous reaction by the Americans and their European allies on Germany’s attempts to build a more independent from the U.S. all-European course. France, the UK, Italy, and Spain don’t want improvement of German hegemony in the EU. From this point of view, the countries have made it clear that relations with America and relations with Germany are not equal to them.
