US ambassador starts off on stern foot with Germany

It's probably not in the US State Department handbook of diplomacy for would-be ambassadors to criticize their host nations. Last week, comments made by Dan Coats during his confirmation hearing for US ambassador to Germany caused leaders here some consternation about the prospects for relations with the Bush administration.

"If they [Germany] are to maintain a central partnership in NATO, it has to be accompanied by more than rhetoric," Mr. Coats told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, "it has to be accompanied by resources." He was confirmed by the US Senate on Friday.

The Coats episode fuels European fears that the relationship between the Bush administration and Germany may not be as tight as it has been under previous administrations. And it plays into perceptions that the president of the world's sole superpower is seeking to go his own way on foreign policy without regard for America's longtime allies.

On top of everything, diplomatic relations are still strained by the Bush administration's abandonment of the Kyoto Protocol and, seemingly, treaty after international treaty.

Coats also warned that if Germany doesn't increase its military spending, there's a "great danger" that the European "rapid-response force" will be a "hollow force." It would lack the "necessary infrastructure with training and equipment to be an effective fighting force unless it is supported by a sufficient budget."

Bela Anda, spokesman for Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, struck back with salvos of his own, telling a newspaper that officials in Berlin were "astonished" at the audacity of Coats' statements on what they consider to be an "internal German issue," and that they will respond to Washington through "appropriate channels."

But there's no small degree of irony in the fact that Coats' remarks ring true. They touch on a sensitive domestic policy debate in Berlin over the future of the German military and the planned European rapid-response force that has been the source of constant tension between the ruling Social Democrat and Green Party coalition government and the opposition Christian Democratic Party.

Coats told the Senate he believes the debate over military spending will be a key theme in the next German national elections. If the recent debate in Berlin over whether to send ground troops to Macedonia is any indication, it's likely true.

"We remain opposed to deployment because we are not going to expose our soldiers to a situation that is fully uncertain militarily, and for which the armed forces are also - due to the government's inflexible cost-cutting program - not equipped," Christian Social Union general secretary Thomas Goppel said last month, when Chancellor Schröder wanted to send troops.

Many others share Mr. Goppel's view. German Armed Forces General Inspector Harald Kujat said earlier this year that the Bundeswehr (the German armed forces) are not "100 percent ready."

And former German Defense Minister Volker Ruhe, who is now a leader of the Christian Democrats, praised Coats. "His statements are just like the ones I have been making for months: that the total neglect of the Bundeswehr will lead to a difficult conflict with the alliance and the United States," he told a newspaper here.

The 1.6 percent of gross domestic product that Germany spends on its military has been a bone of contention with other NATO members, who spend on average 2.3 percent of their GDP.

In April, when military spending cuts in the 2002 German budget were announced, Alexander Bershbow, the Bush administration's interim ambassador to Germany, told public television station ZDF: ''We're a little disappointed that the defense minister's valuable efforts to restructure and reform the Bundeswehr aren't being matched by the necessary funding to make this reform a real success."

Still, Coats has made a controversial debut for one who will be the main contact point between the Bush administration and the German government. Even though Germany has pledged conditional support for Bush's missile defense system, there are still plenty of detractors here.