Sigmar Gabriel made the comment in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine, the Polish website tysol.pl reported on Thursday.
Germany's ‘arrogant approach’
The former leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) said that “Germany made a big mistake by ignoring Poland’s warnings,” adding: “Our eastern European partners were warning us that our perception of Russia was wrong,” tysol.pl reported.
“Germans, and especially us, social democrats, thought that by having success with the ‘policy of détente,’ we have found the right way of dealing with Moscow,” Gabriel stated, as cited by tysol.pl.
He added: “In my view, this explicable, but essentially arrogant approach was our biggest mistake.”
‘Putin miscalculated’
According to the ex-leader of the SPD, by invading Ukraine, Russia sought to become “a superpower competing for global leadership,” tysol.pl reported.
Gabriel, who is also Germany’s ex-minister of economy and foreign affairs, told Der Spiegel that “the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, believed there existed a convenient opportunity to revive the Russian empire.”
However, Putin “miscalculated” and, as a result, will “become the junior partner of [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping,” the senior German politician stated, as quoted by tysol.pl.
‘We should have listened to voices in Poland’: EU’s von der Leyen
Gabriel’s remarks come after the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the European Union “should have listened to the voices… in Poland” regarding Putin’s Russia.
In her 2022 State of the Union Address in Strasbourg, France, last week, von der Leyen stated: “One lesson from this war [in Ukraine] is we should have listened to those who know Putin.”
She added: “We should have listened to the voices inside our Union – in Poland, in the Baltics, and all across Central and Eastern Europe. They have been telling us for years that Putin would not stop.”
Thursday is day 211 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(pm)
Source: tysol.pl, dw.com