Merkel and the EU Trapped between China and the U.S.

[Disir]

She wants the summit to take place no matter what. Last Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a video conference with political group leaders from the European Parliament to discuss Germany's upcoming European Council presidency, which begins in July. For six months, Berlin will be setting the agenda for the European Union, and it has long been clear that Merkel views China as the top foreign policy priority. Indeed, she has planned a large summit in Leipzig from Sept. 13-15, to be attended by heads of state and government from the EU along with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In the video conference last Wednesday, Green Party parliamentary group leader Ska Keller wanted to know if the plan should perhaps be reconsidered given China's violations of international law in tightening its grip on Hong Kong. But Merkel doesn't even want to get involved in that discussion and she avoided the question. Ultimately, it is clear: The EU approach to China is to be the foreign policy cornerstone of Germany's council presidency. Period.

A Foreign Policy Conundrum: Merkel and the EU Trapped between China and the U.S.

Tensions between the U.S. and China are on the rise, with Germany and Europe stuck in the middle. German Chancellor Angela Merkel would like to find a solution, but plenty of hurdles stand in the way.

www.spiegel.de

Merkel is jockeying for power. She and the EU are never "caught between".

 

[Mac-7]

She wants the summit to take place no matter what. Last Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a video conference with political group leaders from the European Parliament to discuss Germany's upcoming European Council presidency, which begins in July. For six months, Berlin will be setting the agenda for the European Union, and it has long been clear that Merkel views China as the top foreign policy priority. Indeed, she has planned a large summit in Leipzig from Sept. 13-15, to be attended by heads of state and government from the EU along with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In the video conference last Wednesday, Green Party parliamentary group leader Ska Keller wanted to know if the plan should perhaps be reconsidered given China's violations of international law in tightening its grip on Hong Kong. But Merkel doesn't even want to get involved in that discussion and she avoided the question. Ultimately, it is clear: The EU approach to China is to be the foreign policy cornerstone of Germany's council presidency. Period.

A Foreign Policy Conundrum: Merkel and the EU Trapped between China and the U.S.

Tensions between the U.S. and China are on the rise, with Germany and Europe stuck in the middle. German Chancellor Angela Merkel would like to find a solution, but plenty of hurdles stand in the way.

www.spiegel.de

Merkel is jockeying for power. She and the EU are never "caught between".

She’s a commie bitch

 

[miketx]

She's gonna cause a furor.

 

[Oddball]

They're not trapped...They can choose....The commies who want to overrun them, or the people who bailed their pale asses out of two world wars.

Seems like an easy choice to me.

 

[DOTR]

Merkel is an East German Communist. With Obama gone she is seeing the United States lurch back towards its historic roots. She hated to see Hillary lose.

Merkel says has no secrets about her communist past

Angela Merkel has dismissed claims in a new book that she was more actively committed to East Germany's communist regime than she has acknowledged, saying she has never kept anything secret about her past.

www.reuters.com

 

[shockedcanadian]

She wants the summit to take place no matter what. Last Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a video conference with political group leaders from the European Parliament to discuss Germany's upcoming European Council presidency, which begins in July. For six months, Berlin will be setting the agenda for the European Union, and it has long been clear that Merkel views China as the top foreign policy priority. Indeed, she has planned a large summit in Leipzig from Sept. 13-15, to be attended by heads of state and government from the EU along with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In the video conference last Wednesday, Green Party parliamentary group leader Ska Keller wanted to know if the plan should perhaps be reconsidered given China's violations of international law in tightening its grip on Hong Kong. But Merkel doesn't even want to get involved in that discussion and she avoided the question. Ultimately, it is clear: The EU approach to China is to be the foreign policy cornerstone of Germany's council presidency. Period.

A Foreign Policy Conundrum: Merkel and the EU Trapped between China and the U.S.

Tensions between the U.S. and China are on the rise, with Germany and Europe stuck in the middle. German Chancellor Angela Merkel would like to find a solution, but plenty of hurdles stand in the way.

www.spiegel.de

Merkel is jockeying for power. She and the EU are never "caught between".

This is why America has to be weary of them. The Brits wisely left the EU due to some of these vital differences, along with sovereignty etc. If it wasn't obvious before, it's quite obvious now since the Wuhan Virus and their actions against Hong Kong.

Once Germany goes down this path, the French will follow. It's only a matter of time before other EU nations start to reconsider their membership when the clear race to the bottom and assisting of the communists is what some desire.

England for their part, have to improve their economy. They are a larger representation of Canada, and that's not a wise approach in 2020 and beyond. Germany needs to turf this leader and get someone in there who has a clue. Hopefully Japan and others side closer with the U.S and understand where German alliances are.

For the record, I never found any of Merkels speeches or words inspiring any confidence in her direction, or, that she understands history much, even as she presumably suffered under the Stasi. She sure has an odd way of understanding the world and the best path for global peace.

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

The conflict between Germany and the U.S. has sharpened considerably since this post was written in April. Most recently the White House has unilaterally announced a withdrawal of 9,000 troops from Germany, leaving only 25,000 there. Many will be redeployed to Poland or elsewhere to the East, infuriating Russia, which would love to see U.S. troops out of Europe and away from its borders.

Perhaps some will return home to help protect the White House from the imagined insurrection going on in the U.S.!

In conjunction with the bullying secondary sanctions Trump has imposed against German companies over NordStream2 and trade with Iran, Cuba, and soon China Itself, Merkel is right to prepare for a showdown with the U.S. — if she wants to hold onto even a shred of sovereignty. Germany and France and Italy and other Europeans should build a separate military force and refuse to work with NATO in U.S. adventures in the Middle East, Afghanistan, etc. They warned against the Iraq adventure, but next time they must take stronger measures, like temporarily shutting down NATO logistics, kicking U.S. nuclear weapons out of Europe, etc. Such moves would be acceptable to European public opinion.

Unfortunately, the U.S. has proved itself to be an utterly selfish, unreliable, even unworthy “ally.” The U.S. is now an enemy of much of Europe, but not of the European central banks, with which the Fed is closely interrelated. Most European NATO military commanders are tied to the Pentagon more closely than they are to their own parliaments or Prime Ministers and Presidents. With England out of the European Community American influence is weaker. But it is hardly clear that Europe can shed its vassalage to America.

Of course Russia and China present no direct threat to Europe. Economic issues with China are real, but resolvable — if there were no U.S. economic pressure but rather solidarity. The lack of freedom in China and Russia will of course complicate matters, but Germany survived and overcame much greater USSR threats and perfected “Ostpolitik,” and we ourselves were allies of Stalin in WWII. Economic interests usually triumph In international politics. More and more, the U.S. offers few real economic advantages, just bullying. If Trump continues on this track and demands delinking with China, it may drive a good part of Europe into a de facto alliance with Russia and China, as difficult and disruptive to European unity and real European interests as this would be.

German officials call US troop withdrawal a ‘wake-up call for Europeans’ & chance to loosen ties

While some in the German establishment fumed over the US presumably keeping Berlin uninformed about plans to withdraw thousands of troops, others envisioned it as a chance to loosen ties with their turbulent NATO ally.

www.rt.com

 

[justinacolmena]

a large summit in Leipzig from Sept. 13-15, to be attended by heads of state and government from the EU along with Chinese President Xi Jinping

That would be an indication of unprecedented hostility to the United States. Germany had Japan and Italy in 1939, and now it's China.

She’s a commie bitch

And in the middle of Saxony, East Germany!