BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday that next month’s NATO summit should focus on strengthening Ukraine’s military power instead of opening a process for the country to join the transatlantic alliance.
In a speech to lawmakers in the Bundestag, Scholz urged fellow NATO leaders to look “soberly” at Ukraine’s bid to join the alliance and argued that Kyiv itself had said “that joining NATO is out of the question” as long as Russia’s war against the country continues to rage on.
“Therefore, I advocate that we focus in Vilnius on what is now an absolute priority: Namely, to strengthen the real fighting power of Ukraine,” the chancellor said in reference to a NATO leaders’ summit in the Lithuanian capital on July 11-12.
He added that EU and G7 countries would work in parallel on “effective and long-lasting security guarantees” for Ukraine, which should be ensured by continued supplies of modern Western weapons as well as economic support to strengthen the country’s resilience against Russia.
Scholz also used his speech to appeal to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to “clear the path” for Sweden to join NATO.
The chancellor also promised that Germany would “as of the following year” finally meet the NATO goal of spending at least 2 percent of its economic output on defense.
China warning
Scholz warned China not to use force against Taiwan, the self-governing island which China claims as its own territory, and expressed concerns about human rights in the country.
The chancellor said that he had used a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Berlin earlier this week to warn Beijing not to use force against Taiwan.
“We strongly reject all unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas by force or coercion. This applies in particular to Taiwan,” he said, while adding that he and allies were also looking “with concern at the human rights situation and the state of the rule of law in China.”
Scholz had faced criticism for taking part a press conference with Li earlier this week that included no questions from journalists and no reference to Taiwan, while only briefly mentioning human rights.
