Berlin:
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday congratulated US presidential election winner Donald Trump and urged continued close transatlantic ties, telling him in English: “We are better off together.”
“Together we can achieve much more than against each other,” added the centre-left leader of Europe’s largest economy.
“Both parties benefit from the transatlantic partnership,” Scholz said in a statement to the media. “The EU and the US are two equally large economic areas, linked by the closest economic ties in the world.”
In an earlier post on
“We will continue to do this in the interest of our citizens.”
The messages amounted to a promise for a fresh start after Trump’s last term in the White House, when he blasted the NATO ally over what he deemed insufficient defense spending, as well as on trade and other issues.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, just back from a visit to war-torn Ukraine, said that “Germany will be a close, reliable ally for the future US administration, that is what we offer.”
“As in any good partnership, where political differences undoubtedly exist, an honest and, above all, intensive exchange is more important than ever.”
She said that during her visit to Ukraine, where the country continues to fight Russian forces, “I felt more clearly than ever how much depends on Europeans and Americans standing together for freedom, international law and democracy.”
Concerns have grown in Ukraine and across Europe as Trump has criticized the scale of US defense spending on Kiev, with many fearing that his pledge to bring peace ‘within 24 hours’ could amount to an agreement on Moscow’s terms.
Baerbock said a just peace “will only be possible with the Ukrainians, with the Europeans and with the US.”
“For me, for us, it is clear: we Europeans will now have to take even more responsibility for security policy.”
Norbert Roettgen, a veteran foreign policy expert from Germany’s conservative opposition CDU party, described Trump’s victory in less diplomatic terms.
“Trump is unpredictable,” he told the Rheinische Post newspaper. “If there were even more support for Ukraine under him, it would be a surprise. He believes that the Europeans should do that themselves, and this position is popular in the US.”
He predicted a “period of stress in transatlantic relations” and said it would be up to Europe “to do our part much faster and more comprehensively for the transatlantic partnership.”
One of the first German politicians to congratulate Trump was Alice Weidel of the far-right Alternative for Germany, who wrote early on Wednesday: “Congratulations to Donald J. Trump on becoming the 47th President of the United States!”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)