German FM sending strong signal to NATO: Pundit

Press TV has interviewed Anthony Hall, professor of globalization at Lethbridge University in Munich, about Germany censuring NATO war games in Eastern Europe.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: Are you surprised that the German foreign minister has made these comments about NATO?

Hall: For a diplomat to say words like sabre-rattling and warmongering, this is a very strong signal that NATO is in a sense out of control. Russia is in Germany’s neighborhood and there is a natural trade alliance and all kinds of things. So this provocation on the part of NATO, which some see as a way of United States occupying Europe, United States still has military bases here in Germany, Germany has a kind of strange constitution out of World War II that it is not fully able to express its sovereign self-determination, so this is a strong signal, 'you are going too far NATO, you are going too far the United States' and we know that the government of Israel is pulling a lot of the strings over NATO right now. So Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s statement is strong and very significant and people should pay attention to it.

Press TV: Is this a sign of a change on the horizon that are we seeing perhaps a break in, well at least I won’t say all of Europe but now we are looking at Germany that enough is enough because we have seen so many of American policies that has caused a lot of problems to the Europeans themselves, whether we are talking about the sanctions against Russia or so many other policies, are we seeing a change overall in the horizon, do you think?

Hall: Let’s think back to the days when the Soviet Union was putting missiles in Cuba. That was not seen well in United States. So this provocation violates understandings made between the United States and Germany at the time that the Cold War was coming to an end and Eastern Germany and Western Germany were uniting and there was an understanding that NATO would not push up against Russia ... which was the Soviet Union.

This is a violation of historic understanding, and of course this idea of transatlanticism that somehow Germany must be subject to the interest and dictates coming from the United States, from the other side of the Atlantic, there is a lot of sentiment here let’s get in on the Eurasian action, the Silk Road and be much more friendly towards the people in the neighborhood, Russia, Iran. Germany has a natural alliance, has a natural interest in being friendly with Russia and not being subjected to something which is not in German interests and this is becoming clear by the statement of Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

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