German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday congratulated US presidential election winner Donald Trump and urged continued trans-Atlantic ties, telling him in English: “We will be better together”.
“Together we can achieve much more than we can individually,” the center-left leader of Europe’s largest economy said.
“The trans-Atlantic partnership benefits both sides,” Scholz said in a statement to the media. “The European Union and the United States are two equally large economic regions, linked by the closest economic ties in the world.”
In the first message posted on X, Scholz said that “Germany and the United States have long been working together successfully to promote prosperity and freedom on both sides of the Atlantic.
“We will continue to do so for the benefit of our citizens.”
The messages were akin to a pledge of a fresh start after Trump’s last term in the White House, when he rebuked the NATO ally over inadequate defense spending as well as trade and other issues.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, returning from a visit to war-torn Ukraine, said that “Germany will be a close, reliable ally to the future US government, that’s what we are offering”.
“As in any good partnership, where there are undoubtedly political differences, an honest and above all thorough exchange is more important than ever.”
He said during his visit to Ukraine as it continues to fight against Russian forces, “I felt more clearly than ever the importance of Europeans and Americans standing together for freedom, international law and democracy. “But how much depends.”
Concern has grown in Ukraine and across Europe as Trump has criticized the scale of US defense spending towards Kiev, and many fear that his pledge to bring peace “in 24 hours” amounts to an agreement on Moscow’s terms. Might be possible.
Baerbock said that a just peace would be possible “only with Ukrainians, Europeans, and the United States”.
“For me, for us, it is clear: We Europeans now have to take even greater responsibility for security policy.”
Norbert Roettgen, a veteran foreign policy expert of the conservative German opposition party CDU, described Trump’s victory in less diplomatic terms.
“Trump is unpredictable,” he told the Rhineland-Palatinate Post daily. “If Ukraine had received more support under his leadership, it would have been surprising. He believes that Europeans should do it themselves, and this position is popular in the United States.”
He predicted “a period of tension in trans-Atlantic relations” and said that “it will be up to Europe to do its part more quickly and comprehensively for the trans-Atlantic partnership.”
One of the first German politicians to congratulate Trump was Elise Weidel of the far-right Alternative for Germany, who wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning: “Congratulations to Donald J. Trump on becoming the 47th President of the United States!”
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