NATO must show strength, keep dialogue with Russia: Merkel

Bloomberg

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization needs to show strength and keep open lines of dialog amid a new political security situation in Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. The NATO alliance must stick together in the face of threats including Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the chancellor said in her weekly podcast on Saturday. The trans-Atlantic alliance shouldn’t allow itself to be divided into North America and Europe, Merkel said in one of her strongest pro-NATO statements since Donald Trump’s election as US president.
Merkel on Friday sharpened her tone against President Trump’s demands that Germany should boost defense spending, saying she’ll keep insisting targets for development aid are just as important. The chancellor’s comments also come after a tense encounter on Tuesday with President Putin, to discuss issues including European Union sanctions on Russia and the situation in Syria. The US administration has ruled out counting foreign aid towards NATO’S defense spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product in member states. A day after Merkel’s first meeting with Trump at the White House in March, the US president said in a Twitter post that Germany owes “vast sums of money to NATO.”