Mr. Djir-Sarai, as foreign policy spokesman for the FDP, you would not have given a good hair to the hesitant Russia policy of the SPD.

Now the Green Foreign Minister is drawing the hard lines of the coalition and the FDP is silent.

Johannes Leithauser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Eckhart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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The Foreign Minister sent a sign of solidarity to Ukraine.

A price tag and a stop sign were put up for Russia should Moscow escalate in the border region.

These messages have arrived.

Should a message of solidarity to Ukraine also include the prospect of arms deliveries?

The Foreign Minister has just repelled that with reference to the coalition agreement.

The topic is very important, also with a view to European credibility in this conflict.

You can't hide behind the coalition agreement.

I think you have to listen very carefully to what wishes and demands come from Ukraine.

All options belong on the table.

Does that mean they would go beyond the coalition agreement?

We are talking about a conflict in Europe, about an existential question.

Together with our European partners, we must take this very seriously.

I'm not advocating arms shipments, I'm just saying that all options must remain on the table.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has just ruled out German arms deliveries after talks with the NATO Secretary General.

You're not worried about presenting the chancellor and coalition partner with a different stance?

Russia's foreign policy is essentially domestically motivated.

And of course, in such a situation, everything diplomatically possible has to be done, but a strategic attitude is also necessary.

And it doesn't help to rule out options from the outset.

Now the new Social Democratic Defense Minister Lambrecht has said for the first time that she needs more money for defense.

How much can the FDP Finance Minister Lindner increase the defense budget?

The fact is that we in Germany and Europe need to invest more in security and foreign policy.

There's no way around it.

America will show less and less willingness to finance our security in Europe.

The Americans will focus heavily on dealing with China and the Europeans will have to solve the problems in their neighborhood themselves.

Your SPD coalition colleague, Rolf Mützenich, drew the conclusion from this that Europe must find its own position “between the blocs”.

Do you share that?

No.

Against the background of the dispute between China and the USA, we Europeans must ask ourselves where our place is.

It's not just a competition of trade interests or ideas about power politics, but also a competition of values.

We would be wise to position ourselves very clearly on the transatlantic side of the Americans, even if our interests are not always identical.

You are now in a new role as designated FDP general secretary and have announced that you want to be both general and secretary.

How is that supposed to be?