The cooling relationship between the U.S. and Germany is not down to Donald Trump but has deeper roots, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
Asked whether her own lack of rapport with the U.S. president was the source of the rift, Merkel told the Financial Times: “I think it has structural causes.”
“Theres been a shift,” Merkel explained, and former U.S. President Barack Obama “already spoke about the Asian century, as seen from the U.S. perspective. This also means that Europe is no longer, so to say, at the center of world events … The United States focus on Europe is declining — that will be the case under any president.”
But in comments that are unlikely to bridge the divide with Washington, Merkel hinted again that Germany could allow Chinese tech giant Huawei into its 5G telecoms network.
Merkel acknowledged that Germany should tighten its security requirements for telecoms providers and ensure it relies on a diverse field of suppliers “so that we never make ourselves dependent on one firm,” but added: “I think it is wrong to simply exclude someone per se.”
The U.S. has signaled that Huaweis involvement in the German network could have serious implications for future intelligence-sharing between Berlin and Washington, and Merkel has faced pressure from MPs from her own center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who want the chancellor to block Huawei over national security concerns.
When it comes to how Europe and the world should deal with Beijing, Merkel said she would “advise against regarding China as a threat simply becauRead More – Source
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