Obama Sends Vice President to Build Bridges

US Vice President Joe Biden is the star guest at the Munich Security Conference this weekend. His speech on Saturday is supposed to form the basis of the new trans-Atlantic partnership. Instead of concrete pledges, experts await a bid to mend ties between Europe and the US.

It’s been little over three weeks since Joe Biden became deputy to the most powerful man in the world and he still hasn’t grown into his new role. The former senator can be seen at the State Department discussing foreign policy or dining with President Barack Obama in the White House. Sometimes he presents himself as a champion of the middle classes, at other times he appears in shirtsleeves at on a railway platform pleading for investment in infrastructure. “It is hard now,” he admitted in a recent TV interview. “What I have to think now is, everything I say, I am the vice president. I am not the president. So everything I say reflects directly on the administration.”

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US President Barack Obama (L) and Vice President Joe Biden.

This Saturday Biden will be speaking explicitly on behalf of the United States. His speech at the Munich Security Conference will be the vice president’s first major international appearance — and the Bavarian capital is rolling out the red carpet for him. The conference organizers promise that his speech will provide the impetus for a new start in trans-Atlantic relations.

What are the expectations for the speech? “The tone is the message,” Laurie Dundon, who previously worked with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and is now at the Bertelsmann Foundation in Washington, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “The right words would define the parameters for future cooperation, just as preparations are being made for Obama’s Europe trip at the beginning of April to the G-20 summit in London and the NATO summit in Kehl and Strasbourg.”

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Biden at the Munich Security Conference: Obama Sends Vice President to Build Bridges – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier plans to push for a “new trans-Atlantic agenda” during a meeting Tuesday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As part of a new start for US-German relations, Steinmeier is looking for progress on disarmament.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has high hopes for an improvement in US-German relations under the new administration of President Barack Obama. The chances of those hopes being fulfilled will become clearer over the next few days, after Steinmeier’s meeting Tuesday with his US counterpart Hillary Clinton and this weekend’s Munich security conference.

Steinmeier, who has been noticeably keener to engage the Obama administration than German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was upbeat about trans-Atlantic relations as he prepared for his trip. “I am now finding dialogue partners for issues where they were previously hard to find,” he said Monday before leaving for the US. He told reporters during his flight to Washinton that he wants to push for a “new trans-Atlantic agenda,” which would include arms control, energy security and climate change.

Steinmeier will be the first member of Merkel’s cabinet to be received by the new US administration. As well as talking to Clinton, who was sworn in on Monday, Steinmeier will also meet with Obama’s national security adviser, James Jones. It is not clear if he will also meet with the president. Among other issues, Steinmeier and Clinton are expected to discuss the forthcoming NATO summit in April, the global financial crisis, climate change, the situation in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Disarmament is also an issue close to Steinmeier’s heart. In an article to be published in the Wednesday edition of the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, Steinmeier expresses his hope that progress can be made on the issue “after a years-long blockade by President George W. Bush.” Specifically, Steinmeier would like to see action on producing a successor agreement to the START 1 treaty on strategic nuclear weapons, which expires in 2009, and also for the US Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. During her recent hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Clinton said she would push for progress on both issues.

Steinmeier would also like to see the Obama administration roll back American plans for a controversial missile defense shield with installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. The missile shield, a brainchild of former President George W. Bush, has caused friction between the US and Russia. “I expect all the sides in the controversial question of the planned US missile shield in eastern Europe to get together to discuss the issue. My position remains: Where there is a common threat, common answers are also possible,” Steinmeier wrote in the article, which is timed to coincide with the Munich security conference. The closely watched conference starts Friday and will be attended by US Vice President Joe Biden and James Jones.

German Foreign Minister to Meet Clinton: Steinmeier Calls For ‘New Trans-Atlantic Agenda’ – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.

Last year the champagne still flowed, but in 2009 angst will dominate the Berlin Film Festival. Cutbacks by studios, concerns about financing and a big-budget thriller about an evil bank — even the silver screen can’t ignore the world economic downturn.

Every movie gets the villains it deserves. Bandits attacking Indians? It’s a western. Hit men shooting police? A crime story. And when psychopaths try to achieve world domination, it’s either a terrorist drama or a film about Adolf Hitler. Those are the usual suspects.

Since the financial crisis, though, a range of unexpected villains has started parading across the screen. Werner Schulz, a politician from Germany’s Green Party, summed up the current mood a few days ago: “Now people are more afraid of their financial advisors than of al-Qaida.”

One German director seems to have anticipated this development. Tom Tykwer, known for his bank robbery fable “Run Lola Run,” will premiere his new thriller “The International” on Thursday, when it opens the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale. This time the bank itself is the villain.

The bank in the movie, in fact, is a criminal organization that commissions murder and homicide — a “bad bank” worse than anything from the current nightmares of the world’s finance ministers. The hero in “The International” is not a crusading protector of the public interest but British star Clive Owen (“Inside Man”).

The financial crisis will set the tone at this year’s Berlinale, the most important international film festival after Cannes. It will be the main topic of conversation at the parties and receptions, the festival’s speeches, press conferences and in the haggling over film rights and new productions.

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Worry Lines Through the Botox: Berlinale Reflects Leaner Times for Movie Business – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.

Vatican’s Pardon of Bishop Is Decried

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Vatican should state that there can be no holocaust denial. (Adrian Moser – Bloomberg News)

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German Chancellor Censures Pope on Bishop’s Holocaust Denial – washingtonpost.com.