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Matthias Platzeck's courageous attitude
by Marita Brune-Koch
(18 June 2021) “We need a new Eastern Policy” - this is the title of Matthias Platzeck's new book1 and this was also the title of the author reading he gave at an online conference on 6 May this year. But you can't really call the event a “reading”. Platzeck, who tirelessly campaigns for good relations with Russia, spoke freely on the topic. The conference was organised by the “German-Russian Forum”.
Putin-Biden summit in Geneva
by Guy Mettan, independent journalist, Geneva
(14 June 2021) 36 years ago, on 19 November 1985, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met in Geneva for a summit that made Cold War history. I remember it like it was yesterday: it was my 29th birthday and I have kept my badge as an accredited journalist to this day.
Handling Covid-19, a global cacophony
by Olivier Delacrétaz,* Lausanne
(10 June 2021) Mr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the “World Health Organisation” (WHO), has appointed an ”independent panel of experts” to review the states’ actions against the pandemic. Their report “Covid 19: Let's make this the last pandemic” is clear: states had sucked.
Their preparation was inadequate, the means committed were insufficient, and the warning systems were slow and weak. It was a real cacophony, explained by the experts with the absence of a global political leadership.
by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Carl Baudenbacher*
(8 June 2021) On 26 May 2021, the Federal Council, Switzerland’s seven-member government, broke off the seven-year negotiations between the EU and Switzerland on the conclusion of an Institutional Framework Agreement (“InstA”). Swiss friends of the InstA had tried to prevent this until the end, in part with very questionable means.
by Willy Wimmer*
(4 June 2021) It sounds like the simple announcement of a change of location. The physical distance between Vienna and Geneva is not great. Yet there must be a reason for choosing Geneva. Perhaps it will be better for everyone if, on June 16, 2021, two presidents take a stroll and drink coffee together on the shores of Lake Geneva?
Declaration by the Association for the Twinning of Cologne and Bethlehem
(4 June 2021) It is, unfortunately, the bitter reality: 25 years after the twinning of Cologne and Bethlehem and the founding of the association to promote this relationship – under the then mayor of Cologne, Norbert Burger – instead of anniversary celebrations we are seeing renewed violence, distress, death and misery, in our two twin cities of Bethlehem and Tel Aviv-Yafo.