As Jewish citizens we experience the close connection between foreign and security policy and the atmosphere in Germany.
It was therefore important to us to meet again one of the people whose organisation offers international foreign policy one of its most important forums: Ambassador Boris Ruge is Vice-Chairman of the Munich Security Conference (MSC). Every year heads of state, ministers, decision-makers and experts meet at the MSC in a non-governmental setting in order to discuss current or emerging topics in a confidential atmosphere.
On the day itself, our conversation naturally focused on the catastrophic situation in Afghanistan and on what lessons might possibly be drawn from it. In Mali, for example, an analogous situation could arise. The insufficient capabilities of the Bundeswehr to cope with such situations even without US support certainly represent a challenge. The next federal government will have to face it.
Another topic was the Middle East. In the course of the armed conflict between Hamas and Israel a few months ago it became clear how quickly the conflict there is mirrored on Germany’s streets and what relevance that has for our sense of security as Jews.
We also took the opportunity to tell Ambassador Ruge about our survey. WerteInitiative is currently asking Jewish citizens what significance individual foreign policy topics have for them and how they assess current policy in this regard.
Ambassador Ruge was interested in receiving the reader with the survey results once it is completed.
Ambassador, many thanks for the conversation!
