BERLIN — Prime Minister Stephen Harper and German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed their solidarity in opposing Russia’s seizure of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and the use of sanctions to try to rein in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bellicose behaviour.
But after meeting privately for more than one hour in the German capital Thursday, Harper and Merkel revealed different ideas and approaches on how to get Putin and Russia to de-escalate the greatest political crisis to confront Europe in many decades.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Putin does not share our values,” Harper said in French. “Despite our best efforts to turn him into a partner, Mr. Putin has continued to see himself as a rival of the western world and he has created a rivalry instead of a partnership.”
Speaking in English, Harper said: “That is the reality we have to come to terms with. I don’t see any return of Mr. Putin to the table unless Russia fundamentally changes course and its orientation to the world.”
Merkel, who is the only western leader who speaks regularly with Putin, and can do so in German and Russian, professed herself to be “pretty relaxed, if I can put it this way,” about Russia moderating its behaviour in the face of further western sanctions and its economic imperative of being able to continue selling oil and gas to Europe.
“We are trying to win the other side over to pursue a course where Ukraine is allowed to take its own sovereign decisions,” Merkel said of the sanctions regime. “It is not that all these decisions have to be against Russia, but Ukraine needs to be in a position to make its own decision to hold free and fair elections and elect a president and pursue economic links with all partners it wishes to have. This is a very simply demand.”
Under no circumstances would NATO be called upon, both leaders agreed, unless Russia took military action against one if the trans-Atlantic alliance’s member states, and the Group of Eight would not convene again until and unless Russia accepted the group’s values.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper takes part in a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany on Thursday, March 27, 2014. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
“We are not pursuing a military solution,” Merkel said. “We don’t think a military solution is a viable option…
“We made it very clear at the G7 that there will be (further) sanctions if de-escalation does not take place (and) matters spin out of control between Russia and Ukraine. The G8 can only happen if there is a certain conducive atmosphere. Part of that conducive atmosphere is common ground regarding a shared understanding of international law and values. If that is not there the G8 simply does not exist as a format and certainly not as a summit meeting.”
The G7 and European Union have already imposed what they call first- and second-degree sanctions against Russia. These included a travel ban on officials close to Putin, freezing some assets and hampering the ability of one Russian bank to conduct business internationally.
Without providing details about a third level of sanctions against Russia, the chancellor said: “There are very clear definitions and I hope that we don’t need to get there,” she said. “But if there is further escalation we will ask resolutely and with cohesion in Europe. We did not only write this down. I am convinced we will do so.”
Harper and Merkel acknowledged that sanctions were a double-edged sword that could harm the West as well as Russia. For that reason “we should proceed quite cautiously,” Harper said, while promoting the potential positive effects of sanctions because “the Russian economy is also fragile.”
Elaborating on the same theme, Merkel said: “If you talk about burden sharing and the pain, well, what sort of pain will it be if we don’t have an environment that is reliable and predictable? It is not only the pain you incur with sanctions but Russia, too, needs trade and commerce. There is global inter-linkage today. Russia, too, can lose quite a lot in all of this. So I am pretty relaxed, if I can put it this way.”
Germany was aware that Canada had oil and gas to sell that could help Berlin reduce its dependence on Russia for one-third of its energy needs, Merkel said, but infrastructure, including ships, terminals and pipelines, was lacking, so energy imports from Canada or the U.S. could not happen any time soon.
