German Chancellor Slams Trump’s ‘Winners – Losers’ View of Global Affairs
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly criticized the administration of President Donald Trump for adopting policies based on a “winners and losers” view of the global affairs rather than on cooperation.
Merkel made the remarks in an interview with Die Zeit weekly on Wednesday, ahead of the upcoming G20 summit due to be held in Hamburg on Friday.
Germany hosts the two-day meeting of the leaders of the world’s 20 major economies, as the agenda of the summit covers controversial issues such as free trade and climate change.
“As G20 president, it is my job to work on possibilities for agreement and not to contribute to a situation where a lack of communication prevails,” Merkel said.
“While we are looking at the possibilities of cooperation to benefit everyone, globalization is seen by the American administration more as a process that is not about a win-win situation but about winners and losers,” she pointed out.
The German chancellor slammed the recent remarks by Trump’s national security adviser, Herbert Raymond McMaster, and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed that said the world is an arena for competition, not a global community.
Merkel said such statements contradict her views, noting that Germany wants everyone to benefit from economic progress rather than only a few.
On June 1, Trump announced his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement on cutting global carbon emissions, a move that would have profound effects on the planet and deepen a rift with American allies.
The unexpected announcement came as the summit of G7 leaders of industrial countries in Italy in late May wrapped up in deadlock on the issue, with US partners voicing frustration at the president’s failure to commit to the deal aimed at stemming global warming.
Under Trump, who once called climate change a “hoax” perpetrated by China, Washington has resisted intense pressure from its partners to commit to respecting the global 2015 accord on curbing carbon emissions.
Abandoning the Paris agreement would carry a high political cost internationally, with Europe, Canada, and China and Japan all expressing strong commitment to the deal.
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