Germany’s Merz admits Europe was free-riding on the US

German Chancellor Frederick Merz has admitted American allegations that Europe was very low for its defense and safety, but now believes that they are on the same page.

“We know that we have to do more on our own and we have been free-rider in the past,” he told the BBC Today program, “They are asking us to do more and we are doing more.”

Merz was in the UK to promote defense relations with Germany, as part of a historical friendship treaty, which aims to deal with irregular migration and promote youth exchange.

The Russian war with Ukraine has implicated the early weeks of its chancellor, as US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose 30% import duty on European Union exports from 1 August.

Merz told Nick Robinson as a Chancellor in his first UK broadcast interview, that he had now met Trump three times and he was on the terms of good speaking: “I think President Trump is on the same page; we are trying to end this war.”

“We are on the phone once a week; we are coordinating our efforts. One issue is war in Ukraine, and the other is our business debate and tariff.”

The merge was a vocal supporter of Ukraine at the mark of the campaign, and visited the Kiev month before carrying Germany’s center-rights Christian Democrats to win elections in February.

Four days after he administered him an oath in early May, he was on a train for Kiev in a show of solidarity with Prime Minister Sir Kir Stmper and French President Emmanuel Macron.

“We are looking at a big danger, and the danger is Russia. And this danger is not only on Ukraine. It is on our peace, on our freedom, on the political system of Europe,” he warned.

Listen to political thinking: Nick Robinson is talking to Frederick Merz

In the run-up for the German elections, US vice-president JD Vance shocked a audience at the Munich Security Conference with a list of allegations against European colleagues including the UK.

Considering the comment, Merz said that the government had to “get our results out of it”. In the message of Vance’s “very open ways”, in other words, loud and clear was heard.

Kenen Etigan of the Conraddent Adenora Foundation in London, which is closely associated with the party of Merz believes that the coming Chancellor had a profound impact: “I think in Munich they thought we thought we have lost Americans – we have to take care of ourselves – and then the oval office.”

Before he took oath, the Chancellor asked to enable a huge increase in defense spending through a change in the German Constitution, saying that the rules for German defense had to do whatever was to be done now.

“We are not strong enough, our army is not strong enough, so that’s why we are spending a lot of money,” he said in his BBC interview.

Together, the UK, Germany and France are working on a triangular alliance of major European powers, called E3, which Mars says that not only will security and foreign policy focus on, but also on economic development.

The Chancellor said that he was now “very close to Keer’s stormer” and also with the French President. Macron is due to meeting him in Berlin next week.

The French leader signed a comprehensive treaty with Germany in Aachen in 2019, and last week he agreed to a deep defense agreement during a state visit to the UK, so the UK-German friendship treaty complements a triangle of bilateral relations.

Sitting in the luxurious environment of the German embassy, Frederick Merz was the head of Victoria and Albert Museums to sign the agreement with the Prime Minister.

Merz said that the bilateral treaty renewed the commitment of two colleagues to protect each other – which is not part of the NATO Treaty, but also part of their alliance earlier when the UK was in the European Union.

British and German firms already collaborates to create products such as typhoon eurofighted vehicles and boxer armored vehicles, and the two governments have agreed to launch joint exports that Downing Street believes that billions of pounds may be attracted.

They are also developing a missile with a range of 2,000 km (1,250 mi) and the Chancellor later stated at a press conference that Ukraine will soon receive adequate additional support in “long distance fire”.

The 69 -year -old Merz is considered a strong believer in the Transatlantic alliance and has well known America for its years out of politics working for an American investment firm.

However, on the night of his election victory, he announced that the Trump administration “was largely indifferent to the fate of Europe”, a comment seen as an unpublished for a Chancellor-in-Vetting at that time.

Asked if he had changed his mind, he said he was not, because Trump was “not so clear and as the former US President was former US administration”.

American was moving away from Europe and turning to Asia, he saw, and that is why it was important to see more freedom than American defense.

The UK has survived the disturbance around the US tariff on its exports on its own exports, but the European Union is facing a time limit of less than two weeks, and all its goods are at risk of 30% tariff.

The European Union trade -conversation Maroš šefčovič traveled to Washington in search of a deal this week, which would save all 27 member states from bounce in US import taxes.

Merz sees high tariffs as unacceptable and kills Germany’s export industry.

“My observation is that the President himself is looking at the challenges and he is ready to come on an agreement. He receives it.”

Another important element of the UK-German Treaty is Berlin’s agreement to change the law to criminalize smugglers storing small boats in Germany for use in illegal channel crossings. The storage of boats in Germany was revealed by a BBC investigation last year.

The Chancellor said that his government would “do our homework immediately” and it was expected that it would not take long to move forward through Parliament after the summer holiday.

There is also a direct rail link from London to Berlin, and British and German students to participate in exchanges, which has declined since Brexit.

Merz said that he hopes that the first people who can see practical differences from the friendship treaty will be students, so that the younger generation can have a relationship between the two colleagues in the future.