Yahoo – AFP,
May 28, 2017
Europe
"must take its fate into its own hands" faced with a western alliance
divided by Brexit and Donald Trump's presidency, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel said Sunday.
"The
times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I've
experienced that in the last few days," Merkel told a crowd at an election
rally in Munich, southern Germany.
"We
Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands," she added.
While
Germany and Europe would strive to remain on good terms with America and
Britain, "we have to fight for our own destiny", Merkel went on.
Special
emphasis was needed on warm relations between Berlin and newly-elected French
President Emmanuel Macron, she said.
The
chancellor had just returned from a G7 summit which wound up Saturday without a
deal between the US and the other six major advanced nations on upholding the
2015 Paris climate accords.
Merkel on
Saturday labelled the result of the "six against one" discussion
"very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory".
Trump
offered a more positive assessment on Twitter Sunday, writing: "Just
returned from Europe. Trip was a great success for America. Hard work but big
results!"
The US
president had earlier tweeted that he would reveal whether or not the US would
stick to the global emissions deal -- which he pledged to jettison on the
campaign trail -- only next week.
On a
previous leg of his first trip abroad as president, Trump had repeated past
criticism of NATO allies for failing to meet the defensive alliance's military
spending commitment of two percent of GDP.
Observers
noted that he neglected to publicly endorse the pact's Article Five, which
guarantees that member countries will aid the others they are attacked.
The
omission was especially striking as he unveiled a memorial to the September 11,
2001 terrorist attacks against the US, the only time the mutual defence clause
has been triggered.
Trump also
reportedly described German trade practices as "bad, very bad," in
Brussels talks last week, complaining that Europe's largest economy sells too
many cars to the US.
Sunday's
event saw Merkel renew bonds with the Christian Social Union (CSU), Bavarian
sister party to her own centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), ahead of
a parliamentary vote in September.
Polls show
the chancellor, in power since 2005, on course to be re-elected for a fourth
term.
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