Merkel justifies her stance on Ukraine at the NATO summit in 2008

2024-11-26 21:46:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has written an autobiography in which she reiterated her decision to oppose Ukraine's future NATO membership at a summit in 2008, despite criticism that such a move could have prevent the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

In the book, Merkel reflects on how that decision and others during her 16 years in power have held up over time and recalls her relationships with US President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin.

Her autobiographical book "Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021" was released in Berlin on November 26, almost three years to the day she left politics and on the eve of a promotional tour of major European cities and the United States.

Merkel, 70, known for her calm and steady leadership, in the book does not accept blame for any of the current tensions in the West's relations with Russia.

Speaking at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008, Merkel stressed that a promise that Ukraine and Georgia would eventually become members of the military alliance would be a "call to war" for the Russian leader, adding that he later told her to her: "You will not be chancellor forever. And then they will become members of NATO. I want to prevent that."

Six years later, Putin began the invasion and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and followed it up with a full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which he has justified in part by citing Ukraine's desires for NATO membership.

Russia is an "irreplaceable geopolitical factor"
According to the book, Putin has always protected himself from being mistreated and involved in power games.

Merkel remembers Putin's penchant for making others wait and recalls that, despite her fear of dogs, he allowed his black Labrador to stay in the room during a meeting in Sochi in 2007.

"You can judge this as childish, reprehensible behavior, you can shake your head in disbelief," she writes. "But this did not make Russia disappear from the map. Russia with its nuclear arsenal exists and remains an 'irreplaceable geopolitical factor'".

Merkel also described her experience with Trump during his first term as president, saying he "judged everything from the point of view of an entrepreneur, because he was one before he entered politics."

She writes that she had talked with him "on two different levels" in the meeting held in March 2017 at the White House.

"Trump on an emotional level, me on a factual level".

Trump, "fascinated" by "dictatorial tendencies"
She adds that Trump, who won a second, but not consecutive, mandate on November 5, did not share her conviction that cooperation could be to the benefit of all, but in instead believed that all countries were in competition with each other.

"He did not believe that the prosperity of all could be increased through cooperation," she writes about the American president, who "was fascinated by politicians with autocratic and dictatorial tendencies."/REL