In claiming that EU members — and Europe as a whole — can no longer rely upon Washington, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has issued a call to arms, saying that the continent must take its fate into its own hands.
Just two days before the G20 summit of world leaders, which will include the attendance of the increasingly polarizing figure of US President Donald Trump, Merkel doubled down on earlier remarks, affirming that Europe "really must take our fate into our own hands," according to the Washington Examiner.
Insisting that her pointed remarks are not to be interpreted in any way except literally, Merkel added: "yes, exactly that way," in an interview with the Associated Press.
"It is, for example, open whether we can and should in the future rely on the US investing so much as it is has so far in the United Nations' work, in Middle East policy, in European security or in peace missions in Africa."
A three-time world leader who has been criticized as being too soft on the policies of the current US president, Merkel observed that Trump's anti-globalization posture serves to exacerbate the belief that only "winners and losers" populate the global financial architecture, ignoring the possibility of a "win-win situation" in which all nations benefit.
"While we are looking at the possibilities of cooperation to benefit everyone, globalization is seen by the American administration more as a process that is not about a win-win situation but about winners and losers," Merkel said.
In an interview with the weekly Die Zeit magazine ahead of the upcoming July 7-8 world financial summit in Hamburg, Germany, Merkel stated that — in spite of expected disagreement on the economy, trade and migration — "As G20 president, it is my job to work on possibilities for agreement and not to contribute to a situation where a lack of communication prevails," cited by Reuters.
