Jerusalem (dpa)- Germany and Israel plan to considerably deepen their cooperation within the space of safety. Throughout his inaugural go to to Jerusalem on Wednesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on a brand new strategic dialogue that’s to be held twice a yr. Scholz spoke of a “crucial additional improvement of our relationships”.
“The brand new bridge we’re constructing is sweet information for the world,” Bennett mentioned. “We will deliver extra stability, extra hope and extra positivity to our areas and past.” Bennett praised Germany as “an anchor of management and duty in Europe”. He was responding to a query about how the U-turn in German defence coverage was perceived in Israel. The problem was “clearly delicate in mild of historical past”, Bennett mentioned with respect to Scholz’s announcement of investments of 100 billion euros within the Bundeswehr.
Bennett and Scholz had beforehand paid a joint go to to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Bennett described it as a spot “that reminds us of the wound that’s the foundation of our relationships”, including that the connection between the 2 nations at the moment is “stronger than ever”. He mentioned that collectively they may deepen relations even additional, and that he was happy that Scholz had chosen Israel as one among his first locations to go to overseas as chancellor.
Planning for the journey had began lengthy earlier than the Russian invasion of Ukraine started. Israel is at all times one of many nations that new chancellors and international ministers go to very early on. The chancellor’s talks in Israel had been dominated to a big extent by the battle in Ukraine.