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Rice Quoted Saying U.S. to Ignore Schroeder
Sun May 25, 2003 09:54 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - Condoleezza Rice was quoted in a German magazine Sunday saying the Bush administration was trying to patch up strained relations with Germany but would continue to ostracize Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Focus magazine reported President Bush's national security adviser told a German visitor recently that relations between Bush and Schroeder were ruined because of the German leader's outspoken opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
"We're now doing everything we can to improve relations to Germany at all levels," the unnamed German visitor quoted Rice as saying. "But we're going to work around the chancellor. It's better to leave him out."
"The Bush-Schroeder relationship will never be what it was and what it should be," Rice was quoted as saying in Focus.
She was also quoted as saying that Bush was aware of Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer's past as a street-fighter turned politician and doesn't believe he is suited to be a statesman.
The conservative Munich-based magazine did not further identify the German visitor.
But two German political leaders were recently in the White House on visits. Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement, traveling with a group of German business leaders, and Hesse state premier Roland Koch both met Bush administration officials.
Koch, a conservative and potential challenger to Schroeder's center-left Social Democrats in the 2006 election, was also given an unplanned meeting with Bush while at the White House.
While Schroeder and his predecessor Helmut Kohl long had close ties with U.S. presidents, Bush has not talked to Schroeder in about six months, according to media reports, and pointedly did not congratulate him on his September re-election.
Schroeder angered Bush by campaigning against any "military adventure" in Iraq. His since-departed justice minister compared Bush's policies on Iraq with those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
France and Russia also opposed the war in Iraq and Rice has been widely quoted telling associates that resulting U.S. policy should be: "Punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia."