＜BBCニュース11月25日＞
Angela Merkel defends ties with Russia and blocking Ukraine from Nato
メルケル氏はロシアに組んでウクライナのNATO加盟を阻止
◎要旨
ドイツの元首相メルケル氏はBBCとのインタアヴューでドイツ企業を援助し、ロシアとの平和を守るために、ウクライナの2008年のNATO加盟を阻止したと語った。彼女によれば、ウクライナのNATO加盟が実現していれば、ウクライナ侵攻は2022年より早く行われたと言う。
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told the BBC the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow.
She also insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
Angela Merkel led Germany for 16 years. She was in office during the financial crisis, the 2015 migrant crisis and, significantly, Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.
Was she too soft on Moscow? Too slow to help Kyiv? If she hadn't blocked Ukraine’s Nato membership in 2008, would there be a war there now?
Speaking to the BBC in Berlin, Mrs Merkel is robust in her defence of her time in office.
She says she believes the war in Ukraine would have started sooner and would likely have been worse, if Kyiv had begun the path to Nato membership in 2008.
"We would have seen military conflict even earlier. It was completely clear to me that President Putin would not have stood idly by and watched Ukraine join Nato.
"And back then, Ukraine as a country would certainly not have been as prepared as it was in February 2022."
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky disagrees.
He describes Mrs Merkel’s Nato decision, backed by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as a clear "miscalculation" that emboldened Russia.
◎私見
兵庫県の知事選挙結果は有権者のマスコミに対する不信の表れと言われている。彼らが問題にしているマスコミの誤報の一つが、ハリス氏の大統領選挙勝利の予想をしたというものだ。確かに、ハリス氏は夏の間は優勢との報道も多かった。しかし、10月に入ると日本のメディアも激戦州7州いずれもトランプ氏有利であった。
自らの勘違いが誤った評価にならないよう、他山の石としたい。
メルケルさん、もし-れば、の話をしても不毛ですが、自分の決断のおかげでなんとか侵略開始を遅らせることができたと思っているのでしょうか。