Just days
after the one
year anniversary of Russia's invasion
of Ukraine,
German Chancellor
Olaf Schulz
traveled to Washington to meet
with President Biden.
The war and its ripple effects
were topics
one, two and three on the agenda
the White House publicly announced.
Right after he left the White House.
Chancellor Schulz
agreed to sit down
for an exclusive interview with me,
Chancellor Schulz.
Pleasure to have you on, sir.
Thank you for having me.
So the leader of the German opposition
Friedrich Marx, says today,
why is all officials in Washington?
What is he doing there?
I thought I'd give you a chance
to respond to him.
I already told Parliament
what I'm doing here.
I'm talking to the president.
And this is not the first talk.
I was here one year ago
but we met quite often.
And we have a lot of phone
calls, video conferences
where we speak together.
So this is part of a permanent dialog of
of the two nations of the president
and me.
And it's
also a sign of a very good friendship
and cooperation of the two countries.
How does
Joe Biden strike you as a leader?
You've met many leaders
all over the world.
What strikes you about Biden? He is
very
informed about international relations.
I think he's one of the most skilled
presidents
knowing how
things are running in the world,
which is important
and times
that are becoming more dangerous
and will see a lot of changes.
And he is really a good man.
Looking at the transatlantic partnership,
which is so important for Europe,
but also for peace of the world
and for Natal.
And I think there is
something which we have in common.
Looking at the people
you in the United States, call them
the middle class.
And I think it is important
that we don't forget
the both their perspectives
and their lives and their hopes.
And so I like him.
When you were talking to President Biden,
you must have confronted
the reality that the war in Ukraine
does appear
to have settled
into something of a stalemate.
Neither side is making major advances.
The Russians have
seemed to have made some advances.
Where does it go from here?
Looking at the situation,
which looks like what you explained to us
we have to understand
where we are coming from.
So it was the idea of Russia
that the
world conquered the whole country
in a very short time.
They did not succeed.
They had to regroup the troops back
from Kiev
where they started their invasion.
Now they are doing this
very ugly, aggressive war
in the east of Ukraine.
And Russia never expected the
strength of Ukraine, of the people,
the braveness, how
they defend their country.
And he never expected that they are
what he is not accepting
and nation and all together.
And on the other hand, he
misjudged the unity of
Europe, of the United States
and all the Friends of Ukraine
and the permanent supply of weapons
we give to the Ukraine.
And so they were able to to defend
their country
and they will be able to do it
in the future.
It is very difficult to judge
what will be the
next things to happen in Ukraine.
But there is something
which is absolutely clear.
We will continue to support Ukraine
with financial humanitarian
aid, but also with with weapons.
But if this continues for years, Ukraine
as a country will be destroyed.
Its economy is already down 40,
50%, depending on
what estimate you look at.
Is there a point
at which
you have to start negotiations
and is there a deal to be had where,
you know, Ukraine
gets some kind of security guarantees
from NATO's
perhaps EU membership and in return
it accepts the reality
that it is not getting Crimea back.
It is perhaps
not getting some parts
of the Donbass back
There will be no decisions
without the Ukrainians.
We will not take decisions
instead of them.
We support them.
But what should they would?
Would you encourage them to take these?
So we told them that they
can go for
membership in the European Union,
and they are very there are working to to
to make progress
and all the criteria
that are important for this.
I think they know that we will
that we are ready
to organize
a certain way
of security guarantee for the country
in times of peace to come.
We are not there yet.
And
to my view,
it is necessary that Putin understands
that he will not succeed
with his invasion
and his imperialistic aggression.
And that he has to withdraw troops.
This is the basis for talks.
And if you look
at the proposals of the Ukrainians,
you are it's easy to understand
they are ready for peace,
but there must be something done.
And this has to be done by Putin.
Next on GPS,
more of
my exclusive interview
with the chancellor of Germany,
Olaf Schulz.
No one really expected that one year ago
that we would easily
economically survive a situation
where there is no gas supply
to Germany
and many parts of Europe
from Russia anymore.
Chancellor Schulz, let me ask you about
your extraordinary
speech to the German Bundestag,
where you talked about
a kind of revolution,
a turning of German foreign policy.
The whole world looked at it
and was struck by
what an extraordinary statement it was.
But the action has not really followed.
You talked about $100 billion
that was going to be spent,
an increase in defense spending.
I think something like 8 billion
is going to be spent this year.
Is is there what is stopping
you from
making your actions match your words?
First,
I announced that we will supply
weapons to Ukraine
and give all the necessary financial aid.
And we are now the strongest
supporter of Ukraine
in continental Europe.
And we will continue to be it.
It is €14 billion which we spent
in the one or the other way
to support Ukraine in the last year.
And this is also due to weapons
where we are acting together
with the United States
and other friends and
delivering a lot of very successful
weapons for the defense of Ukraine.
The last decision was about combat
tanks together with the United States,
but it was supposed to same
when we discussed
about multiple rocket
launchers, for instance,
and similar
weapons necessary for Ukraine.
So we deliver it in this case.
And the second is that we
made our
independent from the supply of gas, coal
and oil from Russia.
No one really expected that.
One year ago, that we would easily
economically survive a situation
where there is no gas supply
to Germany
and many parts of Europe from Russia.
Anymore.
But we did in increasing the capacity
of of LNG imports
from the western ports of Europe,
and also building new ports
in the northern shores of Germany,
using for a longer time as we plant
coal plants, also using using
nuclear plants which were running out,
but we increased the
possibility for them
to produce electricity.
And so we made it
and nothing of what some
people expect to happen.
There is no economic crisis in Germany.
There is there is no
gas shortage or something like that.
And there
has also been more very on defense.
Now, and there is also social stability.
Yes, we spent altogether 300 billion
to stabilize our economy
and save for the pockets
of the normal people
that they can survive
a situation
of increasing prices
and increased prices for energy,
which we are
seeing that they are going down again.
And also,
we started with
investing more in our defense.
And it is absolutely clear
that we will go to 2% of our GDP, as is
agreed in later
when we are starting with this and
we are not spending a billion,
we are spending quite a lot
because we already have
the highest defense budget
in the European Union,
to be very clear as Germany.
But we are willing to increase this.
But it is not that we are going to go
to a shopping
mall and saying,
I want to buy this or this,
and it is
even different
as if we would buy buy
some cars or trucks
which you can ask companies to do
and you will have them
right the next day or two or three
or six months time.
In many cases, we have to
make the
industry starting
their production
and delivering this to us.
And this is the idea behind
200 billion fund which was agreed
by the Parliament
with a two thirds majority
that we can take now the decisions
that are necessary
for the long term supply of our army.
And this will be about tanks
and it will be about our defense
and it will be about ammunition.
And my idea is
that we have to change the way
how we are dealing with the
defense industry.
So we need
and this is also a lesson we learned now
from Ukraine and the war.
The Russians started against Ukraine.
We need a permanent supply.
So the main weapons
we use should be produced permanently.
This is also
for all the necessary maintenance,
and this is also for ammunition.