German Opposition Leader: Dissolve NATO, Seek Security Deal With Russia

Says Collective Security System Needs to Include Russia

In an interview today, German opposition leader Sarha Wagenknecht called on Germany to withdraw from NATO, saying the alliance needs to be dissolved outright and replaced with a new collective security system that includes the Russian Federation.

The comments come after angry condemnation of US President-elect Donald Trump’s comments calling NATO obsolete by Foreign Minster Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who suggested that Germany’s government should use its position to foster “unity” to keep NATO together.

Wagenknecht’s party, Die Linke, is the largest opposition party in parliament, and long advocated international disarmament and urged Germany against foreign military involvement. Her comments on the dissolution of NATO was not the first time the party has made such comments, though this is a much higher profile instance, doubly-so because of Trump’s recent comments.

As the successor party to East Germany’s Socialist Unity Party, Die Linke has also often argued in favor of closer relations with Russia, seeing the end of the Cold War as an opportunity to replace the old NATO vs. Warsaw Pact system with a mutual defense system encompassing all the powers of Europe.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.