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On October 2nd, Permanent Representative to NATO for Germany Hans-Dieter Lucas gave a speech to commemorate Germany’s Reunification that took place on October 3rd 1990.
In his speech the ambassador made three main points, according to his personal opinion.
First of all, he congratulated “the courageous people in the GDR, Poland and Czechoslovakia who brought down the Communist regimes stood up for freedom, dignity and respect for human rights, not for their nations’ superiority.”
He praised the protesters in Berlin, Leipzig, Prague, Gdansk and many other cities who wished for there to be a greater Europe “based on freedom and democracy.”
He then recalled that the vision of peace and freedom is further away in 2019 than it was in 1990.
“The ongoing conflict in and around Ukraine or the end of the INF Treaty show how far the crisis in European security architecture has advanced. Another fundamental shift also worries me, namely the fact that the rules-based liberal order has come under enormous pressure. It has become popular once again to try to turn countries into fortresses. Multilateral cooperation and partnership are being dismissed more and more.”
He then, indirectly dismissed what Trump said at his UNGA speech two weeks earlier: that globalists aren’t the future, but rather patriots are.
According to Lucas, the opposite is true.
“But history teaches us that nationalism or going it alone do not offer a plan for a sustainable and peaceful future. In a world characterized to a far greater extent than in the Cold War era by immense strategic uncertainty and unpredictability, we need more, rather than less, global cooperation.”
The second point he tried to make is that diplomacy is still as important as ever, despite its devolution into a Twitter flame war in most occasions.
“Those years were a time of immense upheaval, and a lot could have gone wrong. Indeed, many things do tend to go wrong when regimes fall. It was different in those years thanks to the courage of leaders like the Hungarian Government, who opened the border in September 1989 for GDR refugees, and the responsible conduct and the wisdom of the politicians and diplomats of the time. We also owe it to them that the division of Germany was overcome peacefully within less than a year following the 9th of November 1989 and with the agreement of all our neighbors. This truly was a masterpiece of diplomacy. Courage and diplomacy based on trust and mutual respect can resolve even seemingly intractable problems. Seeking cooperation and striving for political solutions are among the core principles of our Alliance as well.”
His third point was that the world currently has regrettably become quite dangerous.
“Indeed, looking at the many crises in our neighborhood one may come to the conclusion that the world is out of joint. The history of German unification shows that it pays to stay the course even in stormy waters. So let us not follow the doomsayers or those who preach simplistic solutions ostensibly in the name of the people.”
In conclusion, he thanked the NATO partner countries and Europe for allowing Germany back, despite the crimes that Nazi Germany committed, reminding that this is the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II.
“This anniversary reminds us Germans that it was by no means self-evident following World War II and the horrendous crimes committed by Nazi Germany for our European neighbors and our partners across the Atlantic to accept Germany back as a member of the international community and as a free and sovereign country.”
He spoke shortly and praised everything done by NATO and the European states, but he missed one significant part, as has become customary when the Washington-led establishment speaks regarding history in recent months: the role of the USSR and its leaders.
The Soviet Union is completely unmentioned. Mikhail Gorbachev, who led the USSR when it approved a reunification of Germany, was also completely unmentioned.
History of 30 years ago is being completely remade to make it seem that any sacrifices and diplomatic successes were only made by the European countries and that the Soviet Union, on the other side of the Cold War made no compromise, or even barely took part in the process of bringing stability to the globe.
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