Peace in Europe is only possible with Russia’s involvement: former German chancellor
New Delhi: Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday said that Europe can achieve lasting peace only with the involvement of Russia.
Merkel, who was chancellor from 2005 to 2021, made the statement at a ceremony dedicated to the 77th anniversary of well know media of Munich, Germany.
The former chancellor said, “the Cold War will go on until a lasting peace is achieved with the help of Russia. The events in Ukraine were a “turning point” and warned that statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin need to be taken very seriously,”
“We all are strongly advised to take the words seriously rather than classify them as a bluff from the very start,” Merkel said.
However, the local media of Germany on the other side say, The German government expects Europe’s largest economy to slide into recession next year, contracting 0.4 percent as an energy crisis, rising prices, and supply bottlenecks take their toll. The government has cut its growth forecast for 2022 to 1.4 percent from an April projection of 2.2 percent. It had previously forecast growth of 2.5 percent for 2023.
According to World Economic Forum (WEF), Russia accounted for 55% of Germany’s gas imports in 2021 – a level that declined to 26% by the end of June 2022. Germany plans to meet this challenge through a combination of measures included diversified sources of LNG imports, levies and extended the life of its nuclear power plants.
(Vinayak)
