Biden and new German chancellor try to stifle reports of discord in chummy White House meeting

By Kevin Liptak, CNN

As the standoff between Russia and the West enters a potentially decisive phase, President Joe Biden sought Monday to shore up a key European partner whose willingness to confront Moscow alongside the United States has been called into question.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has resisted sending lethal aid to Ukraine and won’t spell out in much detail his plans to issue sanctions should Russian troops cross the border in an invasion. But in a chummy joint appearance at the White House, both men said fears among US officials that Germany was hiding from a leadership role were misplaced.

“Germany’s completely reliable. Completely, totally, thoroughly reliable. I have no doubt about Germany at all,” Biden said during a joint news conference, bucking up his visitor during his first official visit to Washington.

The two men said each was preparing withering sanctions on Moscow should an incursion proceed. And Biden was explicit that the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would be halted if Russian President Vladimir Putin goes ahead, though Scholz was less clear in his commitment to ending the project.

Scholz took office in December, succeeding a towering figure in global politics — Angela Merkel — whose absence during the current crisis is being felt on both sides of the Atlantic.

He arrived at the White House as Putin has assembled 70% of the military personnel and weapons on Ukraine’s borders he would need for a full-scale invasion of the country, based on US intelligence estimates — though no one seems to know what his true intentions might be.

“I don’t know that he knows what he’s going to do,” Biden said Monday.

Amid the uncertainty, Biden was eager to demonstrate western unity against Putin’s aggression.

“There’s no need to win back trust. (Scholz) has the complete trust of the United States. Germany is one of our most important allies in the world. There is no doubt about Germany’s partnership with the United States, none,” Biden said.

Ahead of the President’s meeting with Scholz, US officials said the two leaders would spend most of their time together discussing the Ukraine matter, including a “robust sanctions package” being prepared to punish Moscow should an invasion go ahead.

When they sat down in the Oval Office in front of a roaring fireplace, Biden said the US and Germany were “working in lockstep” to deter Russian aggression.

The dire facts on the ground lent Monday’s meeting in the Oval Office the air of crisis talks, though Biden also hoped to use the session to get to know Scholz personally, given they are likely to spend a lot more time together in the years to come. They had met once before, when Merkel brought Scholz along to October’s Group of 20 summit, but never as equals. Biden has sought to repair ties to Germany after former President Donald Trump publicly accused the country of shirking its international obligations.

Looming over the meeting, however, was the question of Scholz’s resolve to confront Putin. Among the United States’ major European allies, Germany has appeared the most reluctant to commit to lethal aid, sending thousands of helmets instead of weapons and refusing to allow another NATO ally, Estonia, to send German-made howitzers to Ukraine.

Germany has not joined the United States, France, Spain and other allies in bolstering troops along NATO’s eastern flank. And Scholz hasn’t spelled out in any details what sanctions he might be willing to impose on a country that is still a major trading partner for Germany.

US officials frustrated

The impression that Germany is unwilling — or, because of its energy dependence on Russia, unable — to offer serious deterrence measures has left some US officials frustrated.

Both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have voiced their displeasure, and even Biden has hinted at the discord, saying last month a “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine would prompt some disagreement among NATO members over how to respond.

Scholz said there was no discord between himself and Biden, speaking in English to deliver a message to concerned American officials.

“We are absolutely united and we will not be taking different steps. We will do the same steps, and they will be very, very hard to Russia,” he said.

Ahead of Scholz’s arrival, a senior administration official on Sunday sought to downplay any concerns over Germany’s stance, saying that NATO members each brought their own particular strengths to the table.

“The beauty of having an alliance with 30 NATO allies is that different allies step up to take different approaches to different parts of the problem,” the official said, noting the US and Germany were working closely on sanctions and that Germany was a significant economic donor to Ukraine and had provided humanitarian assistance.

The official also pointed out Germany’s diplomatic efforts, alongside France, to revive a ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia. And the official said the US and Germany were aligned in their view of the troop buildup along Ukraine’s border.

Before his meeting, Scholz told the Washington Post in an interview published Sunday that “our answer will be united and decisive” to a Russian invasion, seeking to dissuade the impression of a fractured alliance. Scholz was also scheduled to appear on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” on Monday, a rare media blitz for a foreign leader intent on reversing the sense he is on a different page from the United States.

The fate of Nord Stream 2

Still, on Monday the new chancellor declined to explicitly say whether a Russian invasion of Ukraine would scuttle the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which transmits Russian natural gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany, avoiding Ukraine. The United States opposes the pipeline and has stated clearly it won’t go forward should Putin decide to invade.

“If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again, then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2,” Biden said. “We will bring an end to it.”

The senior administration official told reporters that the US has made its position clear to the Scholz government. “We will continue to work very closely with Germany to ensure the pipeline does not move forward,” the official said.

Still, Scholz declined to specify what he is prepared to do to halt Nord Stream 2, saying only that Germany would undertake the same steps as the United States to punish Russia.

The Nord Stream issue underscores Scholz’s predicament in confronting Russia for its aggressions in Europe. Germany is heavily dependent on Russian energy, making it difficult to impose severe punishment without risking a shut-off of oil and gas during the cold winter months.

The United States has been hurriedly searching the globe for alternative supplies of energy that could be diverted to Europe, from Asia to the Middle East to domestic American suppliers. It isn’t clear how successful the initiative has been, and some countries have said their gas supplies are already spoken for.

Scholz, meanwhile, has faced the awkward association of a predecessor from his political party establishing close ties to the Russian energy industry. Gerhard Schroeder, the last Social Democratic Party politician to serve as chancellor, serves on the board of directors for Nord Stream 2. And last week, Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom announced Schroeder had been nominated to its board, as well.

Merkel’s absence

There has only been one other chancellor since Schroeder left office in 2005: Merkel, whose absence from the world stage after her 16-year tenure has been felt acutely, particularly as Putin tests the West’s resolve.

When Russia last invaded Ukraine, in 2014, Merkel played a central role as a go-between for Putin and Germany’s western allies. She spoke with him consistently and encouraged other leaders to step up their sanctions to punish Moscow for annexing Crimea. She also played a central role keeping Washington updated through the close relationship she’d cultivated with then-President Barack Obama.

This time, it is not the German leader who is emerging in that role but the French. President Emmanuel Macron has spoken several times per week with Putin, and placed his third phone call in a week to Biden on Sunday evening. Macron visited Moscow on Monday and is expected in Kyiv later this week.

Scholz hasn’t taken as visible a role in defusing the latest crisis, earning him criticism from Germans who accuse the chancellor of making himself invisible at a moment of strain. In an apparent attempt to dissuade that impression, Scholz, too, will visit Russia and Ukraine later this month.

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