Germany news
fromwww.dw.com
1 day agoGermany's Easter peace marches planned in shadow of war
Thousands will participate in Germany's Easter peace marches addressing global conflicts and military service reforms.
Now is not the time to ease sanctions, for whatever reason. Moscow continues to show no willingness to negotiate and pressure on the Kremlin must increase. Germany and its allies will continue backing Ukraine, and the Iran conflict will not distract from that effort.
After the Supreme Court declared the tariffs illegal, Trump responded by declaring a new flat rate of 15% tariffs on all trading partners. As such, the EU has paused its ratification of the agreement as it waits to see what will happen with the new tariffs.
Germany on Monday thanked US President Donald Trump for extending Berlin an invitation to take up a seat on his so-called "Board of Peace." German government spokesman Steffen Cornelius said: "We are thankful for this invitation. We share the aim of pursuing peace in the world. It is in Germany's core interest to end the conflict in Gaza for good."
After the tensions of the George W. Bush era, the new US president's approval ratings among Germans skyrocketed. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 93% of Germans believed Obama would "do the right thing regarding world affairs." That remains a record to this day. Even in 2016, at the end of his second term, an extraordinary 86% of Germans still trusted Obama.
We want to achieve stability and predictability in trade relations. A united stance within the European Union is important in this regard. Businesses need planning security, and that applies on both sides of the Atlantic. We therefore expect clarity from the US government on the next steps.
Friedrich Merz said he saw a "great opportunity" for the industrial exporters, while Xi Jinping called for "enhanced strategic cooperation." China has been courting Western leaders amid Trump's trade tensions. It's Merz's first trip to China since he became chancellor, his predecessor Olaf Scholz visited in 2024.
Meeting in Munich over the weekend, officials on both sides said they wanted to continue to work together. In the world of geopolitics all eyes were on Southern Germany over the weekend where the Munich Security Conference (MSC) served as the latest make or break moment for Germany-US relations. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered the event's opening speech in which he acknowledged that a rift has opened up with the US, and urged trans-Atlantic partners to repair and revive trust.
"European NATO members are under pressure from the United States to build up their defence spending. Though they pledged last June to raise their defence and security-related outlays to five percent of GDP by 2035, Wadephul said progress in Europe so far had been lacking. "Unfortunately, efforts in the French Republic have also been insufficient to achieve this so far," Wadephul said. "France, too, needs to do what we are doing here with difficult discussions."
Relations between the US and Germany are increasingly tense. As German and European leaders determine how to respond to Donald Trump's tariff threats over Greenland, we're asking if world events affecting the everyday lives of Americans in Germany? While we'd like to believe that everyone is capable of making the distinction between a citizen of a certain country and the actions of their government, that's not always the case.
Russia's Foreign Ministry on Thursday said that it had summoned the German Ambassador's representative to inform them that it had declared a staff member at the German Embassy persona non grata. The ministry linked the move to a decision by the German government to expel an employee of the Russian Embassy in Berlin last month on espionage allegations which Russia rejects. It called Thursday's move a 'symmetrical response' and said that Germany bore 'full responsibility for the new escalation in bilateral relations.'