The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– ‘Difficult partner’ –
Trump has repeatedly berated the EU’s top economy for its huge trade surplus with the US and spending too little on NATO joint defence.
He has criticised Merkel for opening German borders since 2015 to a mass influx of mostly Muslim refugees, while she has watched with dismay Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.
Merkel routinely praises the a rules-based international order to tackle global problems from conflict and terrorism to environmental destruction, in stark contrast to Trump’s “America First” stance.
“Angela Merkel is on her third US president in her long tenure as chancellor of Germany,” said think-tank the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
“It is no secret that she sees the current resident of the White House as a ‘difficult partner’. Her return to Washington this week, by all accounts, will be a juggling act.”
Merkel — who developed close relationships with Trump’s predecessors Barack Obama and George W. Bush — this week stressed that, despite the differences, she wants to preserve the bedrock strategic partnership.
“The transatlantic alliance, given the many non-democratic developments in this world,” she said, “is a great treasure that I certainly want to cherish and nurture”.
The Berliner Zeitung daily looked ahead to Merkel’s tough diplomatic mission just after Macron’s charm offensive, saying that “she can hardly follow Macron’s best-buddy act, but she does need a strategy”.
