A photo taken on June 19, 2013 shows US President Barack Obama and Merkel leaving after a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin. Merkel said during her traditional summer interview on ZDF TV channel yesterday that she regrets the deterioration of the trust between the US and Germany, amid a row with the US over spying.

AFP/Reuters/Berlin

Chancellor Angela Merkel lamented yesterday the breakdown in trust between Germany and the United States amid a spying row that saw the CIA chief in Berlin expelled from the country.
“The thing we always have to keep in mind when we are working together is if the person across the table is possibly working at the same time for someone else, that for me isn’t a trusting relationship,” she told German ZDF television.
Asked how angry she was on hearing of the spies, one of whom worked for German foreign intelligence, the other at the defence ministry, Merkel said: “It is not about how angry I was. For me it is a sign that we have fundamentally different conceptions of the work of the intelligence services. I can’t say in advance if [the measures we took] will have an effect, of course I hope something will change.”
Merkel said there were far more critical things on which to spy, and snooping on friends eroded trust.
“We are not living in the Cold War anymore and are exposed to different threats. We should concentrate on what is essential,” she said.
She added however, that German intelligence agents continued to work well with Americans and she hoped this would continue.
She also ruled out any disruption to negotiations between the European Union and the United States on a free trade agreement because of the row.
The US on Friday hinted at displeasure with Germany over its handling of the spying row after the Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Berlin was thrown out of the country.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest, who previously declined to go into detail about the row because it touched on intelligence matters, offered a window into US thinking.
“Allies with sophisticated intelligence agencies like the United States and Germany understand with some degree of detail exactly what those intelligence relationships and activities entail,” Earnest said. “Any differences that we have are most effectively resolved through established private channels, not through the media.”
Some US officials have privately expressed frustration with Germany’s angry reaction to the reported discovery that two government officials were working for the CIA and its decision to respond in a highly public manner by expelling the spy agency’s Berlin chief – an unusual display of fury by Germany towards its ally.
The scandal, which follows German complaints that the US National Security Agency (NSA) tapped Merkel’s mobile phone, has seen the chancellor come under political pressure to respond.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier reacted to the scandal by saying he wanted a revived partnership with Washington, based on “trust and mutual respect”.
He pledged to begin rebuilding confidence at a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna over the weekend.
Steinmeier has been one of a number of German politicians who have spoken frankly and openly about the espionage drama, in a way which appears to have irritated Washington.
The two nations co-operate broadly on foreign policy and on intelligence matters, including on the vital work of trying to detect and disrupt terror plots.
Germany has in the past sought a “no spying” pact with Washington similar to US agreements with Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, but the US government balked at a deal that could set a precedent for others.
US officials familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday that the German defence official under investigation was in contact with a US State Department officer rather than American intelligence agencies, raising questions about whether any espionage occurred. He has not been arrested.
The other man is in custody after being arrested for espionage. He has told investigators he passed documents to the CIA, and US officials have privately acknowledged he did so, and that the CIA believed his information was valuable.
The latest row comes a year after revelations of mass US surveillance based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, sparked outrage in Germany.
Surveillance is a sensitive issue in a country where the memory of the Nazi’s Gestapo secret police and communist East Germany’s Stasi means the right to privacy is treasured.







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