Schroeder has wasted little time

BERLIN - During his election campaign, Gerhard Schroeder unabashedly stole a page from Bill Clinton's book and vowed he would focus like a laser beam on the economy. Even after he ousted Helmut Kohl in September's elections, the new German chancellor declared his government would stand or fall on its record in creating jobs.

But since his election, Schroeder has wasted little time in embarking on an extensive series of foreign trips with the ostensible goal of reassuring his foreign counterparts that he plans no radical departures from the Kohl era.

After visiting Paris and Washington within days of his election, Schroeder traveled this week to Britain to meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair on his first official trip as chancellor. Later this week, he will go to the Netherlands and Poland, to be followed by a working visit to Moscow and an appearance at a Baltic regional conference.

The hectic itinerary for a Social Democratic politician with little background or interest in foreign affairs was conceived by Schroeder's advisers as a way to demonstrate his desire to sustain friendly ties with Germany's main allies and its nine immediate neighbors. Senior officials acknowledge the whirlwind tour also was designed to quell any anxieties abroad about Schroeder after 16 years of a Kohl-led Germany.

Schroeder's lack of previous involvement in world affairs, foreign diplomats say, is compounded by the inexperience of his foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, leader of the environmentalist Greens party, the Social Democrats' coalition partner. "The learning curve of these two fellows could be long and slow," a senior U.S. official said. "It will be very different than the days of Kohl, Schmidt and Brandt." He was referring to Kohl's predecessors as chancellor, Helmut Schmidt and Willy Brandt.

Recognizing that Germany's allies may be worried by the Greens' pacifist and anti-nuclear roots, Fischer has decided to build up trust with his new peers. He plans to meet this week in Washington with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, then travel to New York to see U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Fischer passed his baptism of fire by managing to skirt a potential dispute with London and Paris over whether Germany will accord upgraded status to Britain that could rival its close partnership with France. "Whether you talk of an axis with France or a triangle with Britain, this smacks of 19th-Century nationalism that has no place in today's Europe," Fischer said.

A former taxi driver and self-described street revolutionary, Fischer insists he will conduct foreign policy based on German and European interests, not the political ideals of the Greens. He has retained Wolfgang Ischinger and Hans-Friedrich von Ploetz, two senior diplomats, as his top counselors and plans to appoint Karsten Voigt, a Social Democrat respected for his expertise in security issues, as Germany's next ambassador to the United States.

Schroeder and Fischer say they would prefer to see Germany channel its influence through multilateral institutions, such as NATO and the European Union. But after only a week in office, some new accents suggest that a government run by the Social Democrats and Greens is likely to make significant course corrections in key foreign and security policies.

During a trip to London last week, Fischer emphasized that he intends to make human rights more of a trademark in Germany's foreign policy.

11-04-98