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German defence minister "axed trip to US owing to Rumsfeld snub"
BERLIN - German Defence Minister Peter Struck cancelled a trip to the United States, originally planned for next week, after being "snubbed" by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, according to a German report on Saturday.

The cancellation came on Thursday after Struck was informed that Rumsfeld had penciled in only 45 minutes for a meeting with him, and that other senior Pentagon and White House officials had signalled no interest at all in meeting with the German cabinet minister, said the report in Der Spiegel news magazine.
Why bother meeting him? It's not like he's going to be around much longer, as the article goes on to note.
The magazine attributed the "snub" to the perception in Washington that the fragile centre-left coalition of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is a lame duck government. Schroeder's Social Democrats face an uphill battle for re-election in Germany's general election, likely to be held in September.

Informed of Rumsfeld's schedule, Struck reportedly told an aide, "I generally allow three hours for a meeting with another defence minister." He ordered Berlin's ambassador to Washington Wolfgang Ischinger to appeal to Rumsfeld for a longer meeting, saying, "If that cannot be arranged, then we'll turn around on the runway and head back for home," Der Spiegel quoted Struck as having said.

Adding insult to injury, Struck was also informed that a planned meeting in New York with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan would also have to be cancelled.
When Kofi can snub you, it's a clear signal that Euro visions of "soft power" have failed.
At that point, according to Der Spiegel, Struck decided to call off the US visit.
Posted by: Steve White 2005-06-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=121993