France, Germany 'certain' Trump would honour NATO pledges

"The times when we could fully rely on others are to some extent over", Merkel said.

As reported by Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany's worldwide broadcaster, his comments echo several previous remarks of the same kind he has made, notably during recent meetings with European leaders in Brussels, where he called the Germans "bad, very bad" because of the trade deficit they had allegedly inflicted on the US.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday stressed the importance of Berlin's transatlantic alliance with the USA, but said that her country must engage with other nations.

Dirsus cautioned that Germany remained reliant on the United States, especially in terms of its military.President Donald Trump says Russian officials "must be laughing at the U.S".

European leaders were especially dismayed by Trump's refusal to reaffirm USA support for last year's Paris climate change accord and his failure to publicly endorse NATO's mutual defense pledge. The President went on to say that the non-payment was "unfair" to the USA and her tax payers, a comment that gave rise to several doubts about whether he considers the allocations for defense of the countries as payments due to the US itself.

Merkel knows full well what her voters want to hear, but the existing agreements [whereby Europe plays the second fiddle to the US] haven't gone anywhere.

The eurozone's big three economies, Germany, France and Italy, are sharply at odds with the U.S. over climate change, the future of worldwide trade and the management of mass migration.

"No, no, no", Wittig told CNN "New Day" co-anchor Alisyn Camerota, when she asked him if it was "fair" to characterize their relationship as a feud.

"China has become a more important and strategic partner", Merkel said at a joint news conference with Li, pointing to political, economic, social and cultural ties.

Martin Schulz, leader of the center-left Social Democrats, told reporters Trump was "the destroyer of all Western values", adding that the US president was undermining the peaceful cooperation of nations based on mutual respect and tolerance.

While Ms. Merkel probably won't carry through on her threat - she needs America, as does the rest of Europe to keep Mr. Putin at bay - just the suggestion of a separation could be enough for Mr. Putin to try and seize more territory and solidify Russia's annexation of Crimea and his occupation of parts of Ukraine.

In 2014, member nations agreed to spend 2% of their GDP on defense spending by 2024, but they don't pay North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or the US.

"I think the relationship that the president has had with Merkel he would describe as fairly unbelievable".

"Transatlantic ties are of paramount importance to us. but the current situation gives more reasons to take our destiny in our own hands", she said Tuesday.

Climate issues are expected to dominate discussions between Keqiang, who is leading a large delegation of ministers to Brussels on Friday, and EU Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

  • Zachary Reyes