Merkel: Europe can’t count on UK and US
Angela Merkel has indicated that Europe can no longer completely rely on its American and British allies, declaring that the continent’s destiny is in “our own hands”. Her comments followed meetings of European leaders with Donald Trump at Nato and the G7 summit last week.
The German chancellor said the summit had served as a wake-up call. She said: “The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days.”
ANGELA MERKEL has indicated that Europe can no longer completely rely on its American and British allies, declaring that the continent’s destiny is in “our own hands”.
Her extraordinary comments followed meetings of European leaders with US President Donald Trump at Nato and the G7 summit last week.
The German chancellor, speaking at an election campaign event in a Bavarian beer tent in Munich, said it had served as a wake-up call.
She said: “The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days. And so, all I can say is that we Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands.”
Referring to Brexit, she said: “Of course we need to have friendly relations with the US, and with the UK, and with other neighbours, including Russia.”
But she added: “We have to fight for our own future ourselves, for our destiny as Europeans.”
Mrs Merkel wished French president Emmanuel Macron success, adding: “Where Germany can help, Germany will help, because Germany can only do well if Europe is doing well.”
It came as Mr Macron called his high profile handshake with Mr Trump a “moment of truth” and compared the US leader to Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr Macron and Mr Trump gripped hands so firmly when they met for the first time at the Nato summit in Brussels that their knuckles appeared to turn white and their jaws clench.
The newly elected French president said: “My handshake with him, it wasn’t innocent. One must show that you won’t make small concessions, even symbolic ones.”
He told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper: “Donald Trump, the Turkish president, or the Russian president see things in terms of power relationships, which doesn’t bother me.
“I don’t believe in diplomacy through public criticism, but in my bilateral dialogues I don’t let anything pass. That is how you get respect.”
Mrs Merkel was disappointed by Mr Trump’s refusal at the G7 to recommit America to the Paris climate accord. After the summit, she called the climate talks “very difficult, if not to say, very unsatisfactory”.
Mr Trump has promised to make a decision on the Paris accord this week and has reportedly told confidants he is inclined to withdraw.
At the Nato summit Mr Trump told allies that they were not spending enough on defence. He also criticised Germany’s trade surplus and threatened to stop German exports of cars to the US.
However, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, said he was optimistic after European leaders’ talks with Mr Trump.
He said: “What I am absolutely sure of after this meeting is that, despite some extraordinary expressions and behaviours, our partners in the G7 are much more responsible than the first impression after the election in the United States.”
At the weekend Mr Trump arrived back in Washington from a nine-day world tour as the White House was dealing with reports that Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, had tried to set up a secret communications back channel with the Kremlin in December.
One of Mr Trump’s top security advisers said opening a back channel to Russian government would have been a “good thing”.
John Kelly, the homeland security secretary, told ABC’S This Week: “It’s both normal, in my opinion, and acceptable.”
Mr Trump said he believed his team “hit a home run” with the trip, adding that it was a “great success for America. Hard work but big results”.
The president’s Twitter account had been relatively dormant during his trip abroad but he made a return to it yesterday, using it to declare that leaks emanating from the White House were “fabricated lies”.