German Chancellor Angela Merkel is patiently waiting to be invited for talks with Donald Trump and is unconcerned that the British prime minister will become the first leader to meet with the new US president, her spokesman said yesterday.
“Everything has its time,” said Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert, responding to questions from reporters as to when Berlin expected the chancellor to hold talks with Trump.
“We have all the contacts we can have in the very, very early phase of the new administration – and these contacts ... are continuing,” Seibert said.
He also waved off any suggestion of irritation in Berlin about Britain’s Theresa May becoming the first European Union leader to hold talks with Trump when she travels to the White House on Friday.
The chancellor’s spokesman noted that Washington and London have always had close ties and that May wanted to talk to Trump about a US-British trade deal as part of her nation’s plans for exiting the EU.
Ahead of an invitation by the US, Germany’s Greens are pressuring the chancellor to reveal her position on Trump’s presidency, demanding a written declaration of the country’s strategy on new US relations.
The environmentalists said that the new US president presented “a completely new situation” in terms of international relations and global affairs in a letter addressed to Merkel seen by DPA.
“How will the federal government react, how do we react in the European Union to the new trans-atlantic challenge,” leading Green party members Anton Hofreiter and Katrin Goering-Eckardt asked.
“With which partners – old or new – do we want to further peace, security, freedom and sustainable global development?” they added, urging the government to address the same questions that are on the minds of ordinary German and European citizens.
Trump has in the past called climate change a hoax.
Merkel: still waiting.
