Deutscher Bundestag – 18. Wahlperiode
– 503 –
Drucksache 18/12850
„It’s not quite accurate to say that the U.S. government offered a no-spy agreement
and then withdrew it. I think that what is accurate to say is, is that we do not have a
blanket no-spy agreement with any country, with any of our closest partners. What we
do have are a series of partnerships and procedures and processes that are built up
between the various intelligence agencies.
And what we are doing with the Germans -- as we’re doing with the French, as we do
with the British, or the Canadians, or anybody -- is to work through what exactly the
rules are governing the relationship between each country and make sure that there are
no misunderstandings. And I think that we have gone a long way in closing some of
the gaps, but as Chancellor Merkel said, there are still some gaps that need to be
worked through.
But I think what we can be confident about is that the basic approach that we take with
Germany is similar to the approach that we take with all our allies and all our friends,
and that during the course of the last several years as technology advanced, I think
there was a danger in which traditional expectations tipped over because of new technologies. And what we’ve tried to do is make sure that our policies now reflect increased capabilities and, as a consequence, increased dangers of intrusions in privacy.
But let me put it this way: Our interest in working effectively with the Germans and
to making sure that German governments as well as the German people feel confident
about what we do is as important to us as any other country. Germany is at the top of
our list in terms of friends and allies and colleagues, and so we’re not holding back
from doing something with Germany that we somehow do with somebody else.”2138
„Es ist nicht ganz richtig, zu sagen, dass die US-Regierung ein No-Spy-Abkommen
angeboten hat. Ich glaube, was man richtigerweise sagen kann, ist, dass wir kein pauschales No-Spy-Abkommen mit irgendeinem Land haben, selbst mit unseren engsten
Partnern nicht. Was wir haben, ist eine Reihe von Partnerschaften und Verfahren und
Prozessen, die zwischen den einzelnen Geheimdiensten verhandelt wurden. Was wir
mit den Deutschen, den Franzosen, den Briten und Kanadiern machen, ist, dass wir
einfach abarbeiten und uns ansehen, was die Regeln sind, die für die Beziehungen in
den jeweiligen Ländern gelten, und dass wir sicherstellen, dass es zu keinen Missverständnissen kommt. Ich glaube, wir haben bereits viel gemacht, um einen Teil dieser
Kluft zu schließen. Aber wie die Frau Bundeskanzlerin sagte, sind noch einige Schritte
erforderlich, um die Kluft völlig zu schließen. Ich glaube aber, wir können doch sicher
sein, dass die grundlegende Vorgehensweise, die wir gegenüber Deutschland haben,
2138)
Mitschrift der Pressekonferenz am 2. Mai 2014, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/05/02/remarks-president-obama-and-german-chancellor-merkel-joint-press-confere.