Merkel, Italian PM talk warmly of US ties after critical Trump tweet
After Trump tweeted that German trade and defence policies are 'very bad' and Merkel questioned the US's reliability as an ally, attempts are made by Merkel and others to de-escalate situation, with Merkel and Italian PM Gentiloni saying Europe's ties to the US remain important.
"We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change," Trump tweeted.
Trump took to Twitter a day after Merkel ramped up her doubts about the reliability of Washington as an ally.
In response to Trump's tweet, Head of the German Social Democrats' (SPD) parliamentary group Thomas Oppermann said that "Donald Trump makes clear with his tweet that he views Germany as a political opponent."
Martin Schulz, another leader of the Social Democrats, similarly reporters Trump was "the destroyer of all Western values". He added that the US president was undermining the peaceful cooperation of nations based on mutual respect and tolerance.
On Sunday, Merkel showed the gravity of her concern about Washington's dependability under Trump when she warned, at an election campaign event in a packed Bavarian beer tent, that the times when Europe could fully rely on others were "over to a certain extent".
Those comments, which caused shock in Washington, vented Europe's frustration with Trump on climate policy in particular, along with Trump's statement during the recent NATO summit meeting, in which he criticized major NATO allies over their military spending and refused to endorse a global climate change accord. And while German politicians sided with Merkel, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel signalled that it was time for cooler heads to prevail.
Europe takes a deep breath
As the situation threatened to spin out of control, Merkel and other senior German politicians began to cahnge tone, stressing the importance of Germany's Atlantic ties, with Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel suggesting the spat was just a rough patch.
"The United States are older and bigger than the current conflict," he said, adding that relations would improve. "It is inappropriate that we are now communicating with each other between a beer tent and Twitter," he said in Berlin.
Merkel had already begun finessing her message on Monday, stressing that she was a "convinced trans-Atlanticist", a message she repeated after a meeting with visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin.
Meanwhile, in Rome, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said he agreed with Merkel that Europe needed to forge its own path.
"This takes nothing away from the importance of our trans-Atlantic ties and our alliance with the United States. But the importance we put on these ties cannot mean that we abandon fundamental principles such as our commitment to fight climate change and in favour of open societies and free trade," he said.
