Alwaght- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe can no longer count on the US for military protection and must “take its destiny into its own hands.”
Merkel’s comments on Thursday reprise a theme she first sounded last year in response to US President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy and his hectoring of European NATO allies for allegedly spending too little on defense. It’s her latest retort to Trump, who this week withdrew the U. from a nuclear accord with Iran that European powers say they will uphold.
“It’s no longer the case that the United States will simply just protect us,” Merkel said to applause in a speech honoring French President Emmanuel Macron, who sat behind her at a prize ceremony in Aachen, Germany. “Rather, Europe needs to take its fate into its own hands. That’s the task for the future.”
The French president received the Charlemagne Prize for his "contagious enthusiasm" for strengthening EU cohesion and integration.
Meanwhile, speaking hours before receiving the prize, Macron urged Germany’s leaders to “live up to their responsibilities” in Europe amid foot-dragging from Merkel over his ambitious reform plans for the bloc.
With America at odds with Europe on a string of areas from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord to threats of punitive trade tariffs, Macron said Europe stood at a “historic moment”.
"Europe is in charge of guaranteeing the multilateral order that we created at the end of World War II and which today is sometimes being shaken," he told German broadcasters in an interview.
The time for action had arrived, he insisted, urging "Germany to draw up its response by June" on proposed European reforms.
The European Union's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini has said the bloc is "determined to preserve" the Iran nuclear deal.
Mogherini made the remarks on Tuesday shortly after US President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA.)
The 2015 agreement "is delivering on its goal which is guaranteeing that Iran doesn't develop nuclear weapons, the European Union is determined to preserve it," Mogherini added, warning that she was "particularly worried" by the US' announcement of fresh sanctions.
