• In short: Germany's foreign minister says she is concerned about being too reliant on China for trade.
• She has also warned Israel about conducting any military offensive in Rafah.
• What's next? She said the European nation should look to trade directly with Australia on minerals like lithium.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says her country has overhauled its strategic approach to China to avoid a repeat of the past when, she says, the NATO member failed to realise the extent of its economic dependence on Russia.

"You shouldn't repeat mistakes twice," Ms Baerbock told 7.30, during her first visit to Australia.

"We Germans were so dependent on Russia for gas and oil [that] Russia calculated in the case of invasion, we couldn't react," she said.

The foreign minister said the previous German government had underestimated Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats to Ukraine.

"Our friends and partners, especially in Eastern Europe, they warned us, saying … this is a strategic instrument of dependency, and then also a preparation for the invasion of the war in Ukraine," she said.

Ms Baerbock, who is a Greens politician within Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition, says Germany has now developed a comprehensive China policy to diversify its supply chains, while maintaining a strong trade relationship with Beijing.

"[Germany's] China strategy is especially based on diversification," she said.

"We are not looking for decoupling, but we do not want to repeat our mistake twice that we are so dependent, that we cannot do our foreign policy."

The comments come at a time where Germany says Beijing is "striving for hegemony" in the Asia Pacific region and "calling principles of international law into question".

"They [have] made it very clear in their speeches, and then their foreign policy, that they are also challenging democracies worldwide," Ms Baerbock said.

To counter Chinese influence on trade and any over-dependence on them from Germany, the foreign minister said she would look to trade on critical minerals directly with Australia.

"Lithium comes from Australia then it's being exported to China, processed there, and then we import it again," she said.

"The smartest thing not only for diversification, but also strengthening ties between democracies, and free markets, would be if we could import the lithium directly from Australia."

While Ms Baerbock travelled to Australia to return cultural heritage items to the Kaurna people, she also met with Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong in Adelaide, where the two briefly discussed the situation in the Middle East.

Germany is one of Israel's staunchest allies, and its arms trade with Tel Aviv is second only to the US.

Ms Baerbock told 7.30 that Israel's security remains Germany's "raison d'êtat."

"The security of the state of Israel and the future generation is our raison d'êtat. We have committed the worst crimes, the genocide, the Shoah to 6 million Jews," she said, making reference to the Holocaust.

Germany's foreign minister says that dark history compels them to uphold international law.

"This is why I've engaged so heavily as the German foreign minister, not only to call on Hamas to lay down its weapons to guarantee Israel's security, but also calling on the Israeli government that humanitarian aid has to come into Gaza.

"They are fighting the Hamas terrorists and not the civilian population."

Diplomatic efforts to reach a deal between Benjamin Netanyahu's government and Hamas leadership are ongoing.

The Israeli prime minister maintains his planned invasion of the city of Rafah – where hundreds of thousands of civilians have sought shelters – remains on the cards.

Ms Baerbock says she has warned Israel of the consequences of invading Rafah.

"I made also very clear that an offensive full invasion of Rafah is impossible because of 1 million people who are currently in Rafah, they cannot just disappear in the air."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-05/german-foreign-minister-annalena-baerbock-china-russia-trade/103802558#

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock TALKS smart DUMB SHIT...

— Supporting Israel knowing that israel is committing atrocities is double speak.

— The invasion of Rafah is impossible blah blah blah? Netanyahu will do it if he wishes to do so...

— supporting Ukraine knowing that the whole situation has been engineered by America is double-speak

— knowing that Ukraine is run by a Nazi government does not reflect well on Germany nor on Australia...

— Rerliance on Russian gas was a two way trade. The Americans hated the Russian gas to Germany. It is disingenuous by Baerbock to blame Russian gas when the American Empire has set up the "Ukrainian problem"(which killed the cheap Russian gas deal) to engage the russians into a confllict that Putin tried hard to avoid. The Americans blew up the Nord Sea gas pipelines to prevent Germany returning to cheap Russian gas. Germany is in the clutches of the US Empire and obeys orders from Wahington (white House and the Pentagon that has more than 40 US bases in Germany)

MEANWHILE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp2fMIGyXNw

AND:

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Statements by the French President, UK officials and a representative of the US Senate about their readiness and intention to send military personnel to Ukraine require special attention and special measures, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, commenting on military drills announced by the Russian Defense Ministry.

“Actually, this is stated exhaustively in the statement of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. There is nothing to add there. If you ask me what statements of Western representatives we are talking about, it is obvious that we are talking about the statement of Mr Macron and the statement of the British representatives. You you know, they also added a representative of the US Senate, if I’m not mistaken, who spoke of readiness and even intention to send armed contingents to Ukraine, that is, to actually expose NATO soldiers to the Russian military,” Peskov said in response to a question on whether the announced exercises were connected to the threats.

"They require special attention and special measures," he added.

Earlier in the day, the ministry said that the General Staff of the Russian armed forces had started preparations for holding exercises in the near future with missile units of the Southern Military District, involving aviation, as well as naval forces, in order to increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to carry out combat missions. During the exercises, the Russian armed forces will practice a set of activities for the preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, the ministry said.

At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman noted that information that France will allegedly send soldiers to Ukraine requires verification.

Stephen Bryan, the former assistant to the US deputy secretary of defense, said in an interview with foreign media earlier this month that France had sent soldiers of the Foreign Legion to Ukraine.

The rhetoric of Paris and London regarding the possibility of sending soldiers to Ukraine is dangerous, the official added.

Speaking about the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR)'s report that the US takes measures to replace Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, Peskov said it is to early to comment on them.

"Now, it is premature to talk about this, at this stage I suggest contacting our colleagues from the Foreign Intelligence Service for clarification," Peskov told reporters.

Earlier in the say, the SVR said that Washington had activated efforts to search for an alternative to Zelenskyy.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240506/russian-missile-drills-linked-to-nato-threat-of-troop-deployment-to-ukraine---kremlin-1118285383.html

MEANWHILE:

The US may have to deploy troops to Ukraine if Kiev suffers a complete collapse against Russia, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said.

In an interview with CBS News released on Sunday, the senior Democratic lawmaker stressed the urgency of sending military aid to Ukraine, claiming that if those efforts failed, the US would potentially have to intervene directly in the conflict. 

“We can’t let Ukraine fall because if it does, then there’s a significant likelihood that America will have to get into the conflict – not simply with our money, but with our servicewomen and our servicemen,” Jeffries said.

This stance, however, contradicts the long-standing policy of US President Joe Biden, who reiterated last month that he was “determined” not to send American troops to Ukraine. He noted that Kiev had so far not requested direct military intervention from Washington, expressing the belief that it could win the conflict with Russia if the US “stand[s] with Ukraine and provide[s] the weapons it needs to defend itself.” 

Meanwhile, Jeffries claimed that US efforts to support Ukraine, including pushing a new $61 billion assistance package through Congress, had been stymied by what he called a “pro-Putin faction” within the Republican Party.

He singled out Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has called for funds to be used for domestic needs, rather than sent to Ukraine. Greene has insisted she “does not have any sympathy for… Russia” and that she is “only loyal to a single country: the United States of America.” 

Jeffries’ comments about possible US intervention come after French President Emmanuel Macron refused to rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine. Last week, he suggested that Western nations “would legitimately have to ask [them]selves” whether they should deploy their militaries to the embattled country “if the Russians were to break through the front lines, [and] if there were a Ukrainian request.” Macron has further insisted that rhetoric of “strategic ambiguity” could project strength and deter Russia.

In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested on Sunday that the French leader was “breathing caveman Russophobia” in the hope of using this sentiment to become the de-facto leader of the EU.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned in late February that the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine would make a direct conflict between Russia and the US-led military bloc “inevitable.” 

In the meantime, the Russian military has reported steady progress on the battlefield, capturing several settlements in Donbass in recent weeks.

https://www.rt.com/news/597053-democrat-leader-us-troops-ukraine/

MEANWHILE:

War ─ the mass sacrifice of young generations throughout history, culminating in the barbarism of empires such as the Roman “Pax Romana”, represents the repeated collapse of sanity with transient intervals such as the League of Nationsbetween WWI and the impotent United Nations. More recent bloodsheds such as the Korean, Viet Nam, Rwandan and Middle Eastern wars, along with global heating and nuclear proliferation, herald the collapse of a species dominated by tribalism and the hubris of the 24-hour media cycle ─ A tale full of sound and fury told by an idiot signifying nothing (Macbeth, Shakespeare).

In a human civilisation dominated by mega-empires, armed to the teeth with planet-killer weapons, ruled by military juntas, industrial military complexes, Earth-poisoning energy corporations, multi-billionaires and media tycoon, the concept of “democracy” provides a fig leaf covering exploitation, repression and massacres.

The potential consequences of a nuclear war appear to have escaped the mainstream media attention. There is little evidence of peace negotiations between the major adversaries and measures of averting accidental conflagrations, whether human error or the failure of a computer chip, have been minimised. Having betrayed the prospect of a peaceful future, the warring parties keep investing in $trillion-scale re-armament, covered by sophisticated terms such as self-defence, stability and the rules-based international order.

[P]urporting a climate catastrophe can be averted by development of alternative energy despite a rise in the production of fossil fuels, growing emission of greenhouse gases (~4 ppm/year in 2023-2024), the rise in global temperatures toward +4 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels and the spate of extreme weather events. A nuclear armada aimed at all advanced life is expanded into space while the young generation is occupied with Tik-Tok games.

According to climate science authorities (Hansen et al., 2016) “Burning all fossil fuels would create a different planet than the one that humanity knows. The paleo-climate record and ongoing climate change make it clear that the climate system would be pushed beyond tipping points, setting in motion irreversible changes, including ice sheet disintegration with a continually adjusting shoreline, extermination of a substantial fraction of species on the planet, and increasingly devastating regional climate extremes”.

According to Baronsky et al. (2017) “Localised ecological systems are known to shift abruptly and irreversibly from one state to another when they are forced across critical thresholds. Here we review evidence the global ecosystem as a whole can react in the same way and is approaching a planetary-scale critical transition as a result of human influence.” and “Climates found at present on 10–48 % of the planet are projected to disappear within a century … The mean global temperature by 2070, or possibly a few decades earlier, will be higher than it has been since the human species evolved”.

Nor would the oceans fare better. According to Veron (2008): “The five mass extinction events that the earth has so far experienced have impacted coral reefs as much or more than any other major ecosystem. Each has left the Earth without living reefs for at least four million years, intervals so great that they are commonly referred to as ‘reef gaps’. The prospect of ocean acidification is potentially the most serious of all predicted outcomes of anthropogenic carbon dioxide increase. This study concludes that acidification has the potential to trigger a sixth mass extinction event and to do so independently of anthropogenic extinctions that are currently taking place.

Alas a majority of the world’s 8.1 billion humans is only partly aware of the looming demise of human civilisation in the wake of its near to 10 millennia history and of the mass extinction of advanced species, allowing the “powers that be” to perpetrate the biggest crime against humanity and nature in history

https://johnmenadue.com/the-orwellian-rules-based-climate/

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