Post by RPankn on Nov 27, 2005 17:17:43 GMT -5
A toast to the New World Order.
Published: 11/27/05
BERLIN (AP) - New German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to strengthen relations with the United States and smaller EU nations in remarks released Sunday, a day before her top diplomat heads for Washington.
In an interview with Focus magazine, Merkel also suggested the close links with Russia pursued by her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, were a lower priority for the new government.
"There will certainly be an intensification of relations with the smaller member states of the European Union. And a more intensive trans-Atlantic relationship," Merkel was quoted as saying in the interview, which is to be published on Monday.
Merkel said that was "not a message against others" and that Germany also needs good ties with Moscow.
"We want a strategic partnership with Russia and friendly relations. With the United States of America, we are anchored together in a military alliance, NATO. In Brussels, I very consciously visited NATO as well as the European institutions," she said of a trip she made to the Belgian capital on Wednesday, a day after taking office.
Merkel, a conservative, has repeatedly signaled her intention to repair traditionally strong German-U.S. ties torn by Schroeder's decision in 2001 to join France and Russia in loudly opposing the war in Iraq. Schroeder's position has also weighed on Berlin's relations with smaller EU nations, such as former communist states like Poland and Hungary, both NATO members which sent troops to Iraq.
However, Merkel's coalition government includes Schroeder's Social Democrats and her foreign minister has said that there will be no change in Germany's refusal to send troops to Iraq.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is to leave Monday for talks with U.S. officials including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has also expressed concern at allegations that the CIA may have used bases in Germany for clandestine flights carrying terror suspects.
The Council of Europe, the continent's main human rights watchdog, is looking into reports that the CIA set up secret jails in some European nations and transported terror suspects on covert flights. It has urged governments to provide full information on the issue.
The United States has not confirmed the existence of the secret prisons, and Eastern European countries deny knowledge of covert facilities.
Steinmeier, who was Schroeder's chief of staff, and the German justice minister said in recent days they would like the Americans to address the issue. But there was no indication whether Steinmeier would raise it on Tuesday, when he is to meet with Rice.
While Merkel has not spoken out on the matter, a senior member of her Christian Democratic Union party indicated that he hoped the U.S. would change the way it treats detainees.
"I trust in the Americans to realize things themselves," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as saying in the Spiegel news magazine. "The U.S.A. have often shown that they recognize mistakes and correct them."
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