German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood out on Monday (09.11.2020), in congratulating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their election victory, that the United States and the European Union “must be together” in the fight against COVID-19 and climate change.
“The U.S. and Germany as part of the European Union must be together to overcome the great challenges of our time,” he said in a brief statement on the US election.
In its view, the US and the EU must be “shoulder to shoulder in the difficult examination of the coronavirus pandemic, in the fight against global warming and its consequences, in the fight against terrorism, for an open society and free trade.”
“These are the foundations of well-being on both sides of the Atlantic,” said the chancellor, who stressed the importance of bilateral relations and a decades-old “friendship,” a “common treasure.” He also referred to the “fundamental values” shared by the U.S. and Europe, such as individual, democracy, and freedom.
The Chancellor acknowledged that in this relationship Europeans must progressively assume “more responsibility” in the areas of defence and foreign policy, something that the US “expects and rightly”. “We Europeans have set out on our way,” Merkel added.
The Chancellor congratulated Biden and Harris again, whom she already addressed a message of congratulations on Saturday, and highlighted from the President-elect her “experience” in domestic and foreign policy and her past meetings. De Harris stressed that, as America’s first female vice president and “daughter of immigrants,” she is an “inspiration and an example” of America’s “possibilities.”
Both have before them a “great responsibility,” concluded Merkel, who gave them luck in their new positions.
Merkel never quoted the outgoing president, Donald Trump, with whom he has maintained a difficult relationship over the American’s criticism and snub.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Germany for its large trade surplus, because its defense budget does not reach the equivalent of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP), its migration policy, and Nord Stream 2, the pipeline under construction between Russia and Germany.
