German Development Minister Svenja Schulze, of the SPD, has warned that the US withdrawal from development policy could lead to new refugee movements in the Sahel region. “If we don’t want others to decide whether there are refugee streams from the Sahel, then we should engage there” she told the Handelsblatt (Tuesday edition).
Germany is, after the US, the largest donor of development aid. The continuation of development cooperation is currently a topic in the coalition negotiations between the Union and the SPD. Schulze is leading the SPD’s working group on foreign policy, defense, human rights and development cooperation in the coalition negotiations.
The minister warned against a German withdrawal from development cooperation, saying, “It is not in the interest of our economy and it is also not in the interest of our security.” This would significantly strengthen the influence of China, Russia and other autocracies, which have been setting interest-driven development policies for a long time. “I hope that such arguments will also be heard by the future coalition partners” she said.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz has also openly shown support for merging the development and foreign ministries. Schulze rejects this, as she told the newspaper, saying that a merger would take too much time and weaken Germany.
The billion-dollar cuts in the US government’s development aid to the USAID organization, which affect Ukraine as the largest recipient country, are a major concern for Schulze. “The Ukraine cannot defend itself well if these aids are missing” she feared. Therefore, she welcomes the planned constitutional amendment by the SPD, Union and Greens, which would allow exceptions to the debt brake for civil aid.