Merkel turns fire on ‘blinkered’ Trump’s climate change inaction
America accused of weakening the West with its short-sighted policies and focus on the past
GERMANY stepped up its criticism of Donald Trump yesterday a day after Angela Merkel declared that the US and the UK were no longer “reliable partners”.
Mrs Merkel, speaking at a conference on sustainable development in Berlin, reinforced Germany’s commitment to tackling climate change and said it was vital not to varnish over differences with allies.
The German chancellor did not mention Mr Trump by name but quoted a 1963 speech by former US president John F Kennedy in Frankfurt, where he told his audience “those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future”.
“With change comes insecurity, scepticism... and, not infrequently, the glorification of the supposedly good old days,” Mrs Merkel said. “Particularly in view of the complexity of global contexts, a wish for simple answers spreads.
“But anyone who puts on national blinkers and has no view of the world around him will ultimately get lost.”
Sigmar Gabriel, the German foreign minister, yesterday further stepped up the rhetoric, criticising Mr Trump’s “short-sighted” policies that have “weakened the West”.
Mr Gabriel said that “anyone who accelerates climate change by weakening environmental protection, who sells more weapons in conflict zones and who does not want to politically resolve religious conflicts is putting peace in Europe at risk”.
“The short-sighted policies of the American government stand against the interests of the European Union,” he said, judging that “the West has become smaller, at least it has become weaker”.
Mr Trump has said he will make his “final decision” this week on whether to withdraw the US from the 2015 Paris climate accord.
Steffen Seibert, Mrs Merkel’s spokesman, said the chancellor was “a convinced transatlanticist” and Usgerman relations “are a strong pillar of our foreign and security policy”.
“Precisely because they are so important, it’s right to name differences honestly,” he said.
It came as Theresa May said she wanted to maintain a strong partnership with the European Union over security and trade after Mrs Merkel’s suggestion that the Continent could no longer completely rely on Britain.
Mrs May said it was right for the rest of the bloc to look to its future but made it clear that Britain wanted to remain a key partner.
“We are not leaving Europe. We are leaving the European Union,” she told a campaign event in London.
“We continue to want a deep and special partnership with the remaining 27 countries in the European Union and we will continue to be committed to working with others in Europe both in terms of... a comprehensive free trade agreement but also in terms of our security.”
The Paris agreement calls for “holding the increase in the global average temperature this century to well below 2C (35.6F) above pre-industrial levels”.
It has been signed by nearly 200 countries and was considered by President Barack Obama to be a major part of his legacy.
Mr Trump repeatedly expressed scepticism about climate change on the campaign trail last year, although later said he had an “open mind” on it.
As someone who grew up under a Communist dictatorship, Angela Merkel knows the crucial importance to European democracy of the Nato alliance better than most. It is surprising, therefore, to hear this normally ultra-cautious politician imply that we are heading towards a post-nato world brought about by the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency and Britain’s vote to leave the EU. The German Chancellor said Europe could no longer rely on its past partnerships and would need to provide its own protection.
This seems to have been a response to last week’s Nato summit, the first attended by President Trump and evidently a bruising affair for EU leaders unused to being lectured on their failure to stump up the cash for their own defence.
But Mrs Merkel is either overreacting or playing to the German gallery before elections this year. Mr Trump’s earlier indifference to Nato has been abandoned and he has emphasised America’s commitment to the alliance, even if he wants the Europeans to pay more, a demand that Barack Obama also made. Germans and eastern European countries will, however, have taken note of his failure to reaffirm Nato’s core principle, that an attack on one member invites the retaliation of all.
Undoubtedly, Mr Trump’s ambivalence and the uncertainties surrounding Brexit are giving Europe’s leaders pause for thought about what happens next. But Western Europe stood together militarily long before Britain joined the EU, and can continue to do so after we have left. Moreover, the idea that Germany would want to cut ties with the US and UK, and rely predominantly on the military power of France, is inconceivable.
Mrs Merkel is not an impulsive politician and is looking ahead to the new foreign policy implications of Brexit. There is little point pretending that the UK’S departure will not have a massive impact on the internal politics of the EU. But Europe’s peace and security since 1945 and after the fall of the Soviet Union have been provided not by the EU but Nato, with the US and the UK its principal component parts. There is no reason why that should not continue, nor did anything at last week’s summit indicate otherwise.
It is absurd to describe this moment as “the end of the West” as some now seek to claim. If it is, the biggest losers will be the EU – and Mrs Merkel knows it.