The Office of the President of Ukraine released a message on the 16th local time saying that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz signed the "Agreement between Ukraine and Germany on Cooperation and Long-term Support in the Field of Security" on the same day.
In 2024, Germany will provide Ukraine with a total of more than 7 billion euros in military aid, and Germany will continue to provide support to Ukraine for the duration of the agreement. Germany has confirmed its readiness to use legal means to use revenues from Russian assets to support Ukraine, together with EU and G7 partners.
Seeing all this, it is estimated that the people in Germany will first oppose it, the domestic people are living in difficulty, unemployment is rising, prices are high, enterprises are moving out, and the German government has also spent huge sums of money to support a country at war, and no one knows when it will end.
In the two years since the new German government took office, the economy has continued to slump, and opinion polls have continued to fall. The economy in 2023 is a rare negative growth in many years, Germany's GDP growth rate is -0.3%, the worst performance among the world's major economies, the Green Party's German economy minister Robert Habeck said at the trade fair in Leipzig on Wednesday (February 14) that the German economy is performing "extremely poorly", and the German government is now preparing to lower its GDP growth forecast for 2024 to 0.2%. A large number of German companies have relocated to other countries, such as the United States and China, due to inflation and high energy prices. Germany will even be called the "sick man of Europe" by foreign media in 2023.
For a long time, Germany has been the locomotive of European economy and politics, the engine of economic growth of the European Union, for the United States, Germany is not only an ally, but also a potential adversary in the eyes of the United States, but also a rich country that can be harvested, weakening the German economy is weakening the European Union.
At present, the world can pose a global challenge to the US economy and technology, one is the European Union, the other is China, and the economic volume of both economies is more than 15 trillion US dollars. In recent years, with the rapid rise of U.S. debt and the frequent use of the U.S. dollar as a sanction weapon, the global credibility of the U.S. dollar is weakening, and the gap between the global proportion of the euro and the U.S. dollar is narrowing year by year, very close. In addition, the industrial structure of the European Union is highly similar to that of the United States, with developed high-end manufacturing and service industries, and there is fierce competition in many industries in Europe and the United States.
Therefore, it is a long-term policy of the United States to attack the economy, science and technology of the EU and Germany, and to prevent the EU from becoming independent for national defense.
Last week, Putin said in an interview with Carlson: "After the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Nord Stream 2 has another good one that can deliver gas to Germany." However, Germany just does not agree to open the pipeline, and it is not clear what this means. ”
It is really strange to say that Germany does not buy low-cost energy, and wants to buy liquefied natural gas from the United States and the West at a high price. As a result, the cost of domestic industrial gas has risen, the efficiency of enterprises has dropped sharply, and even there has been an existential crisis. The most likely explanation for this phenomenon is that Germany's top leadership has been controlled by the United States. At present, Germany's coalition government is very weak, and there is no room for resistance and bargaining with the United States.
During Merkel's reign, energy was closely dependent on neighboring Russia, and basic industrial products and sales markets depended on China, and the economy grew for 15 years, becoming the de facto leader of Europe. Merkel is actually using the power of Russia and China to counter the US control and harvest of Germany and Europe. However, the current government's approach is completely contrary, not only losing political and economic autonomy, but also losing the impetus for economic development, and almost being controlled by American power.
German Chancellor Scholz's visit to Ukraine is actually to obey the United States, to show goodwill to the United States, and to show strength to European countries.
There have been rumors in Germany that Germany will hold an early general election, because the current coalition government's approval rating is too low, public discontent is boiling, and domestic and international affairs are in a mess. But a Germany that loses Russia's cheap and abundant energy, loses the trust of its largest trading partner, China, and is heavily dependent on the United States, could lose its position as a leader in Europe and the respect of other countries.