Berlin Foreign Policy Forum 2015

Steinmeier argued that Greece no longer constituted the biggest crisis of the year, as it had been overtaken in importance by the issue of refugees. The refugee crisis, he continued, had the potential to cause permanent divisions in Europe. Moreover, this issue was about humanity, on the one hand, and a proper understanding of solidarity on the other. Steinmeier maintained that Europe could either return to tollgates and national egoism, or demonstrate its strength as a continent and “hold together, and act together.” He also reasoned that the current situation confirmed the need for more and not less Europe. Steinmeier closed by reminding that “the right to asylum is not only a German basic right; it is a fundamental European value” (Opening speech by Foreign Minister Steinmeier).

The subsequent panel discussion dealt with the issue of how these principles could be used to implement a more equitable distribution of refugees across the European Union. The panel consisted of Luxemburg’s Foreign Minister, Jean Asselborn, Jan Hamáček, speaker of the Czech parliament, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The second panel discussion, entitled “Russia and Europe”, focused on the issue of normalizing the strained relations between Russia, its neighbors and the European Union. The participants viewed the differing understandings of the current situation, the divergences between the two related discourses, and the lack of a shared vision for Europe’s future (with Russia viewing itself as part of Europe) as the issues that would be most difficult to resolve. The panel was composed of former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, the Chair of the Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs Norbert Röttgen; as well as Russia’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, and the Political Director of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleksii Makeiev.

The first panel discussion to take place in the afternoon was devoted to the future of the Middle East. During the debate about the Syrian crisis, it became apparent that the old Middle Eastern order was undergoing upheaval and that this process was likely to continue for some time. The transition occurring in the region was said to have been compounded by the fact that none of the actors involved had a clear strategy. This led the participants to welcome efforts to bring stakeholders to the table in Vienna because this could do justice to the interdependencies that existed between the diverse regional conflicts. Nevertheless, intense mistrust between the various parties meant that Vienna was unlikely to produce rapid results. The panel comprised Phil Gordon from the Council on Foreign Relations, Sayed Sadegh Kharrazi, founder of the Iranian think-tank “Iranian Diplomacy”, Jean Marie Guéhenno, President of the International Crisis Group and Ayman Safadi, former Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan.

These discussions were followed by a Körber Debate on the controversial issue of whether Chinese rearmament posed a threat to Asia. Kurt Volker, Executive Director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, contended that China’s rearmament in itself constituted no threat to the region. However, he maintained that the combination of China’s rising military expenditure and the increasing determination with which the country was manifesting its regional territorial claims did pose a risk. Colonel Lu Yin from Beijing National Defense University countered this view by stating that the size of a country’s military was less relevant than a country’s defense policy alignment, which, she argued, constituted an essential element in determining the level of threat posed by a particular country. Accordingly, Lu reasoned that since the Chinese military served the aim to protect the country’s peaceful development and to assume increased international responsibilities in the future, China’s rearmament posed no threat to Asia.

During the final panel discussion, entitled “Europe and the Refugees”, the participants pointed out that the EU faced two equally difficult challenges in this regard: housing the refugees arriving in Europe, and dealing with the causes that lead people to seek refuge. This understanding led the participants to advance the need for a common European strategy aimed at tackling the causes of refugee flows, which, they contended, was the only way to reduce the numbers of refugees in the long-term. However, as EU member states lacked the will to concerted action on both matters, the issue of refugees would continue to dominate European foreign and domestic policy over the coming months. This final panel was made up of the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior Günter Krings, the Director of Human Rights Watch in Brussels Lotte Leicht, the former Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić, and Lina Khatib from the Paris-based Arab Reform Initiative.

Keynote speech by Foreign Minister Steinmeier during the opening of the Forum