Angela Merkel Explains Her Comments on US and Britain
EU cannot completely rely on US and Britain anymore, says Angela Merkel
After ‘unsatisfactory’ G7 talks, German chancellor Angela Merkel announced at the election rally in Munich that Europe “must take its fate into its own hands” and can no longer rely on its longstanding allies, the United States and Britain.
“The times in which we could completely depend on others are, to a certain extent, over,” Merkel told an election rally in Munich as seen in a video published by the Independent.
She added,
“I’ve experienced that in the last few days. We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands.”
The German chancellor suggested that the western alliance has been badly damaged by last year’s Brexit vote in the UK as well as Donald Trump becoming the US president.
The financial and trade relationships between Germany and Britain is one of the most substantial in all of Europe.
The elite gross domestic product ranking of the two nations shows the depth of their interrelationship in terms of foreign trade, where Germany ranks sixth in GDP purchasing power parity globally while the UK is in the tenth place.
In a post by FXCM on Germany’s election, they talked about how Merkel wants to revisit and renegotiate pre-Brexit trade deals.
“In opposition to the views of many prominent EU leaders, she suggested that ‘compromise’ regarding the UK’s desire to secure its borders and restrict ‘free movement’ may be the best policy to ensure economic growth for the countries of the Eurozone,” the article by FXCM stated.
Despite the Brexit vote, Germany and the rest of Europe hope to remain on good terms with the UK, as well as Russia.
However, this is a different case for Donald Trump, as Merkel was quoted by the German newspapers Die Welt and Sueddeutsche Zeitung, respectively, that she “doesn’t consider the US as a reliable partner anymore” and that she “has no confidence in a transatlantic relationship” with the country.
The US president’s uninterested stance on ‘Climate Change’ was the deal-breaker for the German chancellor, according to the report by Legal Insurrection, as Merkel had been irked by Trump’s defiance on the issue.
Merkel regards the environmental issue as the core to her international plans, which she refered to at the 2016 Paris Agreement as the “key agreement that shapes today’s globalisation.”
The six world leaders at the G7 summit that was held in Sicily tried to convince Donald Trump about the opportunities of having a committed Climate Change Policy.
Another issue that the US president countered was the vow to fight protectionism where countries commit to keep their markets open, step up pressure on North Korea, cooperate closely on terrorism, and discuss plans on placing tougher sanctions on Russia.
While six of the seven leaders renewed their commitment, Trump said he needed more time to decide.
Merkel described the result of the summit as “six against one” and that it was “very difficult, if not to say very unsatisfactory.”
In contrast, Merkel welcomed the new French president Emmanuel Macron into his role, and promised that Germany would do what it could to help France to revive the ailing Franco-German engine that once powered Europe.
“Where Germany can help, Germany will help,” she said to a loud applause from a 2,500-strong crowd in the Bavarian capital. She added, “because Germany can only do well if Europe is doing well.”
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