well, my guest today is the influential chair of the german parliament s defence committee, marie agnes strack zimmermann. so, is germany ready to leave its pacifism behind and project its military power? marie agnes strack zimmerman, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much for the invitation. well, it s a pleasure to be here. let s start with that word that olaf schulz used right after putin s invasion of ukraine, zeitenwende . he promised it would be that word, a turning point for germany and its strategic thinking. more than a year later, do we see real evidence of that turning point, that zeitenwende? yes, yes, definitely we see it. it s a really important word, but it s, of course, not only a word, you need it in your mind. um, first of all, we have now the 100 billion euros for the bundeswehr. this is really important, more money for our army. we are looking for it for years. you said not so long ago that the german army has been bled dry. so now it s the right direct
is the influential chair of the german parliament s defence committee, marie agnes strack zimmermann. so, is germany ready to leave its pacifism behind and project its military power? marie agnes strack zimmerman, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much for the invitation. well, it s a pleasure to be here. let s start with that word that olaf schulz used right after putin s invasion of ukraine, zeitenwende . he promised it would be that word, a turning point for germany and its strategic thinking. more than a year later, do we see real evidence of that turning point, that zeitenwende? yes, yes, definitely we see it. it s a really important word, but it s, of course, not only a word, you need it in your mind. um, first of all, we have now the 100 billion euros for the bundeswehr. this is really important, more money for our army. we are looking for it for years. you said not so long ago that the german army has been bled dry. so now it s the right direction. but that s an ex
germany has in the last few months delivered billions of euros worth of very modern, war fighting equipment. there are many germans. even weapons which our army. ..er, doesn t have. many germans look at that and they worry. they listen to moscow and in moscow, the russian officials around putin talk of escalation and they directly talk to germans and say, if you in germany continue with this policy, we in moscow will inevitably regard you as an enemy and that means as a potential target. germans are worried about that. mm, i don t think so.
and germany allowed immediately, because some of them are from the gdr, it s old stuff from the 70s, 80s, but the eurofighter and tornado, no. 0k. now, as you have said, germany has in the last few months delivered billions of euros worth of very modern, war fighting equipment. there are many germans. even weapons which our army. ..er, doesn t have. many germans look at that and they worry. they listen to moscow, and in moscow the russian officials around putin talk of escalation and they directly talk to germans and say, if you in germany continue with this policy, we in moscow will inevitably regard you as an enemy and that means as a potential target. germans are worried about that. mm, i don t think so.
whether the united states should have maintained a military presence in afghanistan but we all agree the arbitrarily and poorly planned method which you withdrew from afghanistan caused this crisis. as the taliban flag flies beneath blackhawk helicopters left behind, the spes i have concerns of republicans in congress include spending billions of taxpayer dollars on war fighting equipment with a plan to either take it all back or destroy it all. we know they now have an air force bigger than one-third of any nato country and more blackhawks than australia. they ll either utilize them or sell them to adversaries. next is no cash for the taliban. at the bottom of the hour we ll see the president for the first time today. he is expected to address hurricane ida and his efforts to respond to it. nothing about afghanistan on the public schedule today.