Russia's invisible presence at talks between Merkel and Trump

By Vestnik Kavkaza
Russia's invisible presence at talks between Merkel and Trump

US President Donald Trump wrote briefly summed up the results of his recent meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Twitter, writing that he had a great meeting, but "nevertheless, Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany."

According to the deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Europe, Vladislav Belov, there was Russia's invisible presence at talks between Merkel and Trump: "Trump has repeatedly said that he won't pursue the Pax Americana concept, impose his own values. Russia is a world power for Trump, a partner, and he believes that it's impossible to build Euro-Atlantic security system without it. Trump's question to Merkel: "Who is Mr. Putin and how to deal with him."

According to the expert, right now Germany sends Moscow more and more signals, demonstrating that it wants to improve relationship: "There is a good working dialogue at the level of Russian President and German Chancellor. Despite the fact that ministers change in both countries, there's still great relationship at the level of economy ministries. Federal Chancellor's visit to Moscow is scheduled for early May. She was here last time on May 10, 2015. As for the vector of Russian-German relationship, it's more transparent and understandable, it doesn't depend on the outcome of September 24 elections. It doesn't matter what kind of coalition will form, who will become Federal Chancellor, our relationship will develop steadily. I represent the field of science, and it hasn't suffered since 2014, we still receive funding, many programs are being implemented, German House of Science and Innovations successfully operates in Moscow." Vladislav Belov believes that Merkel's message, which she was supposed to convey to Trump, is that it's impossible to form European world order without Russia: "This is written in the Bundeswehr's 'White Paper', which was adopted in mid-June of last year. This was a message to the European community since the Munich conference. But it's still unknow how the US will build relationship with Europe and Germany."

Head of the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy of the Moscow Humanitarian University, Nikolay Platoshkin, suggests that it's time "to say farewell to Angela Merkel as German Federal Chancellor": "Even her closest allies say that her campaign is sluggish, that she's gotten tired of everything. She really doesn't know how to handle the problem that Trump called a 'catastrophe' - the problem of migrants." As for the results of Merkel's visit to Washington, in Platoshkin's opinion, they are negative: "German business expected that Trump will say something that would ease pressure on German companies, but Trump said the exact opposite. He that the US lost a lot due to trade agreements with the European Union and that he intends to put an end to it. As for military spendings, Merkel responded in the same way, promising to double them before 2024. Even Trump's hypothetical eight-year term will end by 2024. Merkel reminded me of Nasreddin Hodja, who promised Shah that he will teach donkey to read in 20 years, and then declared that either he himself, Shah, or donkey will die in 20 years. Merkel won't remain Chancellor after September, and the foreign policy results of her rule are sad. For the first time in history after 1945, Germany has equally bad relationships with two superpowers. Merkel has bad relationship with Russia, but she also didn't find supporter in the face of the United States. The latest poll, conducted this March in Germany, shows that 71% of Germans don't trust Americans, whie 74% don't trust Russia."

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