Merkel says EU can’t fully rely on US, UK
German leader urges ‘fight for own future’
MUNICH: German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her strongest indication yet that Europe and the US under President Donald Trump are drifting apart, saying reliable relationships forged since the end of World War II “are to some extent over”.
Speaking at a campaign rally in a beer tent in Munich on Sunday, Ms Merkel offered a glimpse of her world view after Mr Trump’s nine-day trip, during which he hectored Nato allies for not spending enough on defence, called Germany’s trade surplus “very bad”, and brought the US to the brink of exiting the global Paris climate accord.
Ms Merkel, who met with Mr Trump during the Nato meeting in Brussels and the G7 world leaders’ summit in Taormina, Sicily, said Europe must now plot its own course. “The times when we could fully rely on others are to some extent over — I experienced that in the last few days,” Ms Merkel told supporters in Munich a day after the G7 meeting. “We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands.
“Of course we need to have friendly relations with the US and with the UK and with other neighbours, including Russia,” she said. Even so, “we have to fight for our own future ourselves”.
Richard Haass, president of the US Council on Foreign Relations, called Ms Merkel’s comments a “watershed” in a Twitter message, saying the scenario is “what US has sought to avoid” since World War II.
Mr Trump spurned overtures by mostly European leaders to commit to the Paris climate treaty at the weekend G7 meeting, a development Ms Merkel called “very unsatisfactory”. After first meeting Mr Trump in Washington in March, Ms Merkel has had little success in finding common ground with her new American counterpart.
Despite Ms Merkel’s commitment to working toward Nato’s goal for each member country to spend the equivalent of 2% of its economic output on defence by 2024, Mr Trump dressed down the leaders of the alliance at a summit meeting on May 25 for “not paying what they should”. He spoke shortly after Ms Merkel gave a two-minute speech lauding the alliance’s common purpose.
The German leader has hit back repeatedly as the Trump administration lambasts the country’s trade surplus with the US. On climate, European officials have braced for a possible US exit from the first international agreement that sets commitments on limiting global warming — an accord put together in 2015 by almost 200 countries and strongly backed by Ms Merkel.
Relations between Germany and the US became strained in 2002-2003 when then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder refused to support the US invasion of Iraq under President George W Bush. Ms Merkel’s comments, though, signalled a broader trans-Atlantic split.
Ms Merkel made a pitch for European unity at the Munich rally, citing election victories over nationalist movements in France and the Netherlands as evidence that EU voters were retreating from a populist surge.
Her line on reliability, Europe’s need to plot its own course and her pledge to “fight” in Europe’s interest drew extended applause from supporters dressed in lederhosen and dirndls. Saying she’ll stand up for the EU project of “peace and freedom”, Ms Merkel singled out this month’s victory of Emmanuel Macron over nationalist Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential race.
“I wish Macron all the best for his country, that people have jobs again and that people have a future — that young people can believe in Europe again,” Ms Merkel said.