Tag: Germany

Germany rejects Trump’s proposal to let Russia back into G7: foreign minister

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany has rejected a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin back into the Group of Seven (G7) most advanced economies, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a newspaper interview published on Monday.

Trump raised the prospect last month of expanding the G7 to again include Russia, which had been expelled in 2014 following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

But Maas told Rheinische Post that he did not see any chance for allowing Russia back into the G7 as long as there was no meaningful progress in solving the conflict in Crimea as well as in eastern Ukraine. Continue reading.

When Trump attacked Germany in Brussels, his aides pursed their lips and glanced away

The following article by Rebecca Tan was posted on the Washington Post website July 11, 2018:

President Trump slammed Germany on July 11, over a gas pipeline deal with Russia. He said the country is now “captive to Russia.” (Reuters)

President Trump kicked off his trip to Europe with a biting critique of the United States’ longtime allies, declaring at a breakfast meeting that Germany “is captive to Russia.” Next to him, three of his senior officials seemed uncomfortable at times, pursing their lips and glancing away from the table.

Trump is in Brussels for the 29th annual NATO summit, where he is meeting, among others, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. His charge that Germany is captive to Russia comes days before he is scheduled to sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a one-on-one that he has described as the “easiest” of his meetings this week.

In the clip shown above, Trump begins by citing German imports of Russian gas as evidence that “Germany is totally controlled by Russia.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg remains stoic as Trump lays out his complaint, but U.S. ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly look uncomfortable. Hutchison appears to avert her gaze from her NATO colleagues sitting across from her, while Kelly looks down, then shifts his body and glances away, lips pursed tightly.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

No, Germany doesn’t owe America ‘vast sums’ of money for NATO

The following article by Amanda Erickson was posted on the Washington Post website March 18, 2017:

Fresh off the heels of a dust-up with Britain, President Trump attacked another key ally — Germany.

At a news conference Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump “reiterated” his “need for our NATO allies to pay their fair share for the cost of defense.” He followed up Saturday with an impolitic double-barreled tweet shot, writing that Germany owes America “vast sums of money” for NATO. And, he argued, the country should pay more “for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides.” Continue reading “No, Germany doesn’t owe America ‘vast sums’ of money for NATO”