GERMAN Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to meet US President Donald Trump on Thursday.
A month into his job, the conservative Merz, 69, is a staunch transatlanticist at pains to maintain good ties with what he considers postwar Germany’s “indispensable” ally, despite Trump’s unyielding “America First” stance.
Merz will hope that his pledges to sharply increase Germany’s NATO defence spending will please Trump.
On Trump’s threat to hammer the European Union with sharply higher tariffs, Merz, leader of the bloc’s biggest economy, has argued that it must be self-confident in its negotiations with Washington, saying that “we’re not supplicants”.
Despite the tensions, Merz said he was “looking forward” to his first face-to-face meeting with Trump.
“Our alliance with America was, is, and remains of paramount importance for the security, freedom, and prosperity of Europe,” he posted on X late Wednesday. Merz is looking ahead to his first in-person meeting with Trump “with great calmness and joy”, his spokesman Stefan Kornelius said, pointing to their “very good relationship” so far. “
Germany is the third-largest economy in the world, and we have a lot to offer as an economic partner of the USA,” Kornelius said.
AFP
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