Germany foreign minister slams Trump administration

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN

Germany’s foreign minister sharply criticized U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday for pursuing national interests while ignoring Western values and putting peace at risk.

In some of his toughest criticism of the Trump administration to date, Sigmar Gabriel said major arms deals signed between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia last week demonstrated that the Trump administration is going the wrong way.

“The U.S. has a security concept rather reduced to the understanding that one can achieve security and stability through military spending,” he told a press conference in Berlin.

“But many examples show us that at the end of the day, one can only bring peace and stability by developing economic perspectives and hope for the young generations, certainly not through military spending alone,” he said.

Germany’s outspoken top diplomat claimed that the Trump administration’s controversial policies are undermining Western values and the international order based on these values.

The social democrat has called on European partners to take steps to make the European Union stronger, in order to fill the vacuum left by the U.S. in the international arena.

Gabriel’s remarks came a day after a stern rebuke by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said EU member states can no longer fully rely on the U.S. and so should take their fate into their own hands.

"The times when we could fully count on others, they are now to a certain extent over. I have experienced this in the last few days,” Merkel said, referring to last week's G7 and NATO summits, which exposed rifts between Germany and the U.S. on issues of defense, foreign policy, international trade, and climate change.