The Old Embassy
TOKYO/BERLIN (Own report) - Germany and Japan have launched a second UN offensive and seek to make a consolidated effort to attain seats on the UN Security Council. This was announced by Chancellor Angela Merkel following talks in Berlin with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The new assault ("UN reform") succeeds a UN diplomatic debacle, in which both sides failed, due to the resistance of several World War II victims of the earlier Berlin/Tokyo axis of aggression. In 2005 Berlin, in particular, was accused of using brutal methods in its handling of third states. According to these reports, votes were to be bought, so that Germany could attain world power status with a seat on the UN Security Council. The emergence of the German/Japanese alliance is accompanied by Tokyo's politico-military offensive. Powerful forces in Japan strive for a revision of the postwar constitution, which currently only permits self-defense forces. The intention is to unharness Japanese military potential on a global scale. The rearmament of Japan is coordinated with Washington and is to lead to an institutionalized cooperation with NATO. Discussions to this effect were the focus of Shinzo Abe's recent visit to the German capital. The German government announced its wish to further intensify the very close cooperation with its ex-World War II ally. The alliance is directed against China, a repeated victim of Japanese crimes of aggression.
As Angela Merkel stressed, following discussions with the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, a permanent seat on the UN Security Council is not "the only item" of German demands to the UN. The new secretary-general of the United Nations, will have to introduce "a new round of reforms," explains the chancellor, who already, at the beginning of December met Ban Ki-Moon in Berlin, with whom she discussed German plans. "Already under Kofi Annan, Germany attained a weight in the world organization, that was unprecedented for Germans," summarizes an dissatisfied, foreign policy expert of the SPD, a party in the governing coalition, after talks with Ban AI-Moon. "The continuation of the renewal process" is "of primordial significance for the future of the world organization."[1] The provocative tone of such statements, referring to "reforms", while actually meaning a German seat on the Security Council, has become standard operating procedure of Berlin's UN-Policy, since former Foreign Minister, Fischer (Greens) took office.[2]
Front Position
Government politicians in Berlin are demanding that, among other things, corrections be made in the UN Human Rights Council. There a "fatal formation of regional groups" is looming, meaning that "a front position of the lesser developed countries in opposition to the west" cannot be excluded.[3] This alleged "front position" that the "renewal process" is supposed to dismantle, is actually capable of winning a majority in opposition to western "human rights" tactics within the UN. These tactics are applied to confront ill-favored states, using humanitarian pretexts ("Good Governance") and to exert political pressure from a position of power.
Defense
Berlin does not only want to be active In this field solely in UN subsidiary organizations, but in a place of prominence - in the UN Security Council. The structure of the United Nations' highest body is no longer acceptable, if Germany is continuously refused admission. Rather than confronting the realities of Berlin's great power claims, the Security Council "remains in its 1946 constellation," according to those in the German capital intent on drawing the line on the founding history of the United Nations.[4] The UN owes its existence to the defense against the German/Japanese war of aggression.
German Model
Now Japan is also striving to take the step toward a global military presence, that Germany has accomplished over the last 15 years, and therefore plans to change its postwar constitution. World-wide deployments of Japanese military forces will then again be possible. Last Tuesday, Tokyo's former "Self-Defense Authority" was upgraded to a "Ministry of Defense". The Japanese government seeks to carry out its military ascent along the lines of the German model and with the support of its closest ally, the United States - that encourages Japan to cooperate closely with NATO. Washington is hoping to be able to shift the burden of its Middle Eastern wars onto the shoulders of another state. In addition, Japan is an element of the western plans to encircle the People's Republic of China.
Weapon exports
Berlin sees Japan's institutionalized cooperation with NATO with mixed feelings ranging from caution to skepticism. Before the NATO summit in Riga, at the end of November, it was being heard in the German capital that a close cooperation with the USA's East Asian-Pacific partners (Japan, South Korea, Australia) could shift the weight within the western war alliance further in Washington's favor.[5] These misgivings and a possible compensation, in the context of the UN Security Council, were the subjects negotiated between the chancellor and the Japanese Prime Minister, whose European journey continues to other European capitals and the NATO for further talks. Chancellor Merkel has already reaffirmed, that she does not to want to waive the EU weapons embargo against China, a traditional victim of Japanese aggression. Japan, on the other hand, has long since been a customer of German war materials.[6]
Axis
If the closer cooperation, desired by Washington, between Japan and NATO should materialize, the new military cooperation between the former Axis powers, would also include concrete combat missions - of course, for the time being, under the leadership of the USA, the former winner of the world war. The odd alliance is obviously based on long-term strategic considerations, which in Asia are directed against the People's Republic of China and in Europe, against Germany's business competitors. This began taking form in the 80s. At that time, Bonn and Tokyo, both close partners of Washington, started a cooperation offensive, which gave a strong impulse to German/Japanese trade relations and was accompanied by an expansion of bilateral organizations. Among them Germany and Japan created a German/Japanese business circle and the Japanese-German Center, in what was then (West-)Berlin.
Tradition
Already at that time "Central and Eastern Europe were to be included in the dialogue," according to a self-portrayal of the Japanese-German Center, in reference to the former world war allies' continental coveting.[7] The center was first accommodated in the building that had housed the Japanese embassy, which is located in the more prestigious section of what was to have become the European Nazi capital "Germania". Even after German surrender, Tokyo never relinquished the diplomatic status of this property and again used the old Nazi structure beginning in 1987. At first it housed the above mentioned, front organization in Berlin. In the meantime, the center has changed its location and made way for the original occupant: the Japanese Embassy in Berlin.
Please read also "Germany in Japan", Fernöstliche Interessen, Ehrenmitglied and Geschlossener Kreis
[1] Von Annan zu Ban: UN-Reform muss weitergehen; politikerscreen.de 29.12.2006
[2] see also Die Vereinten Nationen
[3] Von Annan zu Ban: UN-Reform muss weitergehen; politikerscreen.de 29.12.2006
[4] Von Annan zu Ban: UN-Reform muss weitergehen; politikerscreen.de 29.12.2006
[5] see also Die NATO in Riga: Dissens
[6] Die deutschen Rüstungsexporte nach Japan betrugen etwa im Jahr 2004 über 16 Millionen Euro und im Jahr 2005 mehr als 17,5 Millionen Euro.
[7] Die Geschichte des JDZB; www.jdzb.de
