Germany a slave to Russia, says Trump
President claims gas deal makes Berlin ‘captive’
DONALD Trump barrelled into a Nato summit in Brussels yesterday with claims that a natural gas pipeline deal has left Germany ‘totally controlled’ and ‘captive to Russia’.
The US president also complained about Nato allies’ ‘delinquent’ defence spending during the opening of what was expected to be a fraught two-day meeting.
The president ended a day of confrontation with European allies with a tweet that read: ‘What good is Nato if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for gas and energy?’
The president, in a testy exchange with Nato SecretaryGeneral
Jens Stoltenberg that kicked off his visit, took issue with the US protecting Germany.
‘I have to say I think it’s very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia where we’re supposed to be guarding against Russia,’ Mr Trump said at a breakfast with Stoltenberg.
‘We’re supposed to protect you against Russia but they’re paying billions of dollars to Russia and I think that’s very inappropriate.’
Mr Trump, who has German ancestry, repeatedly described Germany as ‘captive to Russia’ because of the energy deal and urged Nato to look into the issue.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed back firmly, insisting that Germany makes its own decisions.
She drew on her own background growing up in communist East Germany behind the Iron Curtain.
‘I’ve experienced myself a part of Germany controlled by the
Soviet Union and I’m very happy today that we are united in freedom as the Federal Republic of Germany and can thus say that we can determine our own policies and make our own decisions and that’s very good,’ insisted the German leader.
The US president appeared to be referring to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would bring gas from Russia to Germany’s northeastern Baltic coast, bypassing Eastern European nations like Poland and Ukraine and doubling the amount of gas Russia can send directly to Germany.
The vast undersea pipeline is opposed by the US and some other EU members who warn the pipeline could give Moscow greater leverage over Western
Europe. It’s expected to be ready at the end of 2019.
Environmental-conscious Germany is trying to reduce its reliance on coal and is phasing out nuclear power by 2022, so it hopes to use natural gas to partially fill the gap until the country’s electricity
‘Germany makes its own decisions’ ‘Brazen insult of an ally’
grid can cope with fluctuating levels provided by renewable energy.
The alternatives, including US supplies, are more expensive.
In their back-and-forth, Mr Stoltenberg stressed to Mr Trump that Nato members have
been able to work together despite their differences. ‘I think that two world wars and the Cold War taught us that we are stronger together than apart,’ he told the US president, trying to calm tensions.
Back in the US, Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement describing Mr Trump’s ‘brazen insults and denigration of one of America’s most steadfast allies, Germany,’ as ‘an embarrassment’.
‘His behaviour this morning is another profoundly disturbing signal that the president is more loyal to President Putin than to our Nato allies,’ the Democrats wrote.