Angela Merkel: US actions "really break one’s heart"

"It really breaks one’s heart to see the U.S. walk away from the Paris accord," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during the panel discussion of at civil platform Civil20, dedicated to the upcoming G20 summit. "It was a tough blow," Merkel admitted. At the same time, she stressed that the fact that thirty US states announced their desire to continue to adhere to the climate agreement is a signal of hope for her.

Merkel stressed that the US position on Paris accord was also ambiguous under Obama administration - at that time, the US Congress and Senate also lacked a majority to ratify this agreement. "Otherwise, if the agreement was ratified, current administration wouldn't be able to withdraw from it so easily ," she noted. However, despite differences in German-American relations, the United States remain an important partner in the framework of the G20, and Germany always welcomes American partners, Merkel said.

As she noted, there are increasing tendencies of self-isolation in the world today. The G20 task is to promote advantages of international trade, not protectionism. "We open new prospects, support multi-lateral trade systems." According to Merkel, globalization is not a fate that must be accepted unconditionally, but a process that can be formed. Merkel believes that there are different views on globalization due to one important question: is it mutually beneficial for all sides, or should it be viewed as a "zero-sum game". "I believe in the first approach," Merkel said, hinting at fundamentally opposite philosophy of US President Donald Trump. German Chancellor said that Asian countries, where poverty has significantly decreased through free trade in recent years, are a great example of the positive effect of globalization. Another positive example is the NAFTA, which allowed to create of a large number of new jobs in Mexico. "Yes, this process involves transfer of certain parts of production chain to other countries, but can you achieve development without opening up to the world?" she asked.

She spoke about her vision of tasks of the G20 summit in Hamburg. According to her, participants of the summit have two main tasks: to take responsibility for today's life and take care of problems of the future. Along with such topical issues as fight against terrorism, problems of migration in the world, regulation of financial markets, participants of the summit will also discuss formation of global health architecture and climate change.

During the discussion she also raised topic of African continent. "It's absolutely unacceptable that 60 years after colonial era ended, only 20-25% of the population in some African countries has electricity," she acknowledged, calling for development of mechanisms to attract private investments to Africa. At the same time, Merkel suggested that African countries should use "Chinese model", which involves the creation of joint ventures and transfer of technologies. "Of course, this model has certain drawbacks for developed countries - for example, today China is Germany's main competitor in the construction of high-speed trains," Chancellor stressed, noting that Chinese achieved a lot using this strategy, and African countries should take advantage of this positive experience.