Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has announced plans to present Berlin's new foreign policy on the United States in the next few weeks.
The German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) cited Maas as saying that he plans to make use of the Year of Germany in the U.S., which is due to begin on October 3, in order to promote the new policy.
"It's high time we reassess the transatlantic partnership in a sober, critical and even self-critical way," the FM emphasized, in an apparent reference to U.S.-German relations.
"Single-handedly, we will fail in this task. The main goal of our foreign policy is therefore to build a sovereign, strong Europe. "That's why it is indispensable that we strengthen European autonomy by creating payment channels that are independent of the United States, a European Monetary Fund and an independent SWIFT system," he wrote.
Maas added that Germany needs a "balanced partnership" with the White House, in which it "brings its weight where the U.S. withdraws."
The statement came after Maas pointed out in an article published by the German business newspaper Handelsblatt that if Europe wants to save the Iran nuclear agreement, it should review its partnership with the U.S. and create an EU payment system to serve as a "counterweight" to the U.S., whenever Washington "crosses red lines."
