Germany’s Merz says he found Trump open to dialogue and committed to NATO
BERLIN AP German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated Friday a day after meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House that he encountered a U S administration open to discussion and returned confident that Washington remains committed to NATO Merz described his Oval Office meeting and extended lunch with Trump as constructive but also candid noting that the two leaders expressed different views on Ukraine President Donald Trump left greets Germany s Chancellor Friedrich Merz upon his arrival at the White House Thursday June in Washington AP Photo Alex Brandon The preceding day in the meeting at the Oval Office I expressed a distinctly different position on the topic of Ukraine than the one Trump had taken and not only was there no objection but we discussed it in detail again over lunch Merz revealed in Berlin after his return Thursday s White House meeting marked the first time the two sat down in person Merz who became chancellor in May avoided the kind of confrontations in the Oval Office that have tripped up other world leaders including Ukraine s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South Africa s Cyril Ramaphosa The two leaders opened with pleasantries Merz presented Trump with a gold-framed birth certificate of the president s grandfather Friedrich Trump who emigrated from Kallstadt Germany Trump called Merz a very good man to deal with The American administration he commented is open to discussion listens and is willing to accept differing opinions Add he added that dialogue should go both approaches Let s stop talking about Donald Trump with a raised finger and wrinkled nose You have to talk with him not about him He declared he also met with senators on Capitol Hill urging them to recognize the scale of Russian rearmament Please take a look at how far Russia s armament is going what they are at the moment doing there you obviously have no idea what s happening he commented he communicated them In short you can talk to them but you must not let yourself be intimidated I don t have that inclination anyway Related Articles Pentagon watchdog investigates if staffers were questioned to delete Hegseth s Signal messages Trump s surgeon general pick criticizes others conflicts but profits from wellness product sales The Latest Trump-Musk relationship appears to implode Federal vs state power at issue in a hearing over Trump s voting overhaul executive order Trump and Musk break up and Washington holds its breath Merz who speaks English fluently stressed the need for transatlantic trust and mentioned he reminded Trump that allies matter Whether we like it or not we will remain dependent on the United States of America for a long time he stated But you also need partners in the world and the Europeans especially the Germans are the best-suited partners This is the difference between authoritarian systems and democracies authoritarian systems have subordinates Democracies have partners and we want to be those partners in Europe and with America He reiterated that the U S remains committed to NATO particularly as Germany and others boost their defense spending Trump has in the past suggested that the U S might abandon its commitments to the alliance if member countries don t meet defense spending targets I have absolutely no doubt that the American regime is committed to NATO especially now that we ve all explained we re doing more We re ensuring that we can also defend ourselves in Europe and I believe this expectation was not unjustified Merz explained We ve been the free riders of American shield guarantees for years and we re changing that now
