Angela Merkel doesn’t hold back about Trump, trade and European cohesion ahead of G-7 summit
Munich — German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a forceful pitch for Europe to play a more assertive role in global affairs as US President Donald Trump dismantles the post-Second World War order, setting the stage for a potential tense stand-off at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit this week. The German leader again questioned the durability of transatlantic relations by referring to eye-raising comments she made more than a year ago in which she said that "the times when we could fully rely on others are, to some extent, over". Those words, spoken at a beer-tent election rally, were a reaction to Trump hectoring European leaders for not spending enough on defence at a Nato summit in Brussels. Since then, more fuel has been added to the fire. "That was my takeaway from the Nato summit, and in the meantime, I continue to feel confirmed [in] my statement," Merkel said in Munich on Wednesday, this time to a meeting of the European People’s Party (EPP), a grouping of centre-right parties i...
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