MERKEL VOWS TO STAY IN JOB, WORK AT µUNDER PRESSURE¶ 8 S RELATIONSKIP
*(RMAN< &hancellor Angela Merkel, vowing to stay in office despite chal lenges at home and abroad, said she would work on *ermany’s “under pressure´ relationship with the United States but that :ashington could no longer be relied on to deliver world order.
,n a wide ranging news con ference, Merkel described *ermany’s relationship with the United States as “cruci al´, even after U.S. President 'onald 7rump last week accused Berlin of being a “captive´ of Russia due to its energy reliance.
Merkel, , is facing criti cism at home and abroad as she tries to hold together her fractious coalition dogged by infighting over immigra tion policy while also dea ling with 7rump and a raft of foreign policy challenges including Brexit.
/ast week, 7rump said *ermany was wrong to support an US' 11 billion Baltic Sea pipeline to import even more Russian gas while being slow to meet targets for NA7O spending a decision he described as “a horrific thing´.
Asked about her working relationship with 7rump, Merkel said “One can say that the values, or our usual framework, are under strong pressure at the moment.´ “+owever, the transatlantic working relationship, inclu ding with the U.S. president, is crucial for us and , will carry on cultivating it,´ she added. Merkel, a conservative who grew up in &ommunist (ast *ermany, welcomed 7rump’s invitation to Russian President 9ladimir Putin to meet in :ashington this au tumn and said it should be come normal again for U.S. and Russian leaders to meet. But she added that she had been right to say a year ago that (urope could no longer rely on the United States to impose order on the world, and that it needed to take matters close to home into its own hands. “:e can’t rely on the superpower of the United States,´ Merkel said, descri bing possible U.S. tariffs on imported cars as “a real thre at to the prosperity of many in the world´.
(Reuters)