President Donald Trump on Wednesday blasted a planned natural gas pipeline link between Russia and Germany. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has split European nations, with some saying it increases Europe’s dependence on Russia and poses national security threats. Germany relied on Russia for 50 percent to 75 percent of its natural gas imports in…
A rescuer pushes a migrant dinghy intercepted in the Strait of Gibraltar, July 11, 2018. | Photo: Reuters As long as Europe continues to operate with a skewed definition of the crisis, it will continue to grow, leading to far dire consequences for all of those involved, writes Ramzy Baroud. A recent European Council summit in…
U.S. Army paratroopers enter a helicopter at the training area in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on Feb. 10, 2014. (Armin Weigel/European Pressphoto Agency) BERLIN — For more than half a century, the deployment of U.S. troops to Germany appeared to be a mutually beneficial relationship. Americans defended their national interests in Europe and beyond, while U.S. soldiers considered…
Government consultations between Germany and China in Berlin on Monday aim to send a signal of closer bilateral cooperation in light of a worsened trade spat with the US. But some hurdles have yet to be overcome. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang held talks on closer economic cooperation in Berlin on…
Germany spends 1.24 percent of its GDP on defense and has promised to increase that figure to 1.5 percent by 2024. But Jens Stoltenberg, the head of the NATO alliance, says Berlin needs to spend much more than that. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said Germany should be more vigilant in increasing its defense spending, as…
The German army is set to benefit from a multibillion-euro spending increase, according to Finance Minister Olaf Scholz’s draft defense budget. Germany has been under pressure to contribute more as a NATO partner. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany will increase defense spending as she prepares to attend an upcoming NATO summit next week in…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and now Interior Minister Horst Seehofer at a rally in Munich in September 2017. Berlin (CNN) Germany’s three-party coalition reached an agreement on a key migration policy Thursday night, ending, for now, a dispute that had threatened to bring down the government. The announcement came four days after Chancellor Angela Merkel and her…
In this edition of Insiders we look at a worrying phenomenon sweeping across Europe: antisemitism. In recent years it has been manifesting itself in threats, intimidation, and both verbal and physical attacks. There have even been been several murders, notably in France. Why is this happening and who is to blame? The extreme right and neo…
A recent summit saw the domestic contradictions in EU nations coming to the fore; the focus is increasingly on getting Turkey and Libya to stop those fleeing from conflict. In the last week of June, political developments within Germany and the recent resurgence of the right in many countries in the continent led to migration…
The federal budget draft suggests multibillion increase in defense spending for 2019. Over the recent time, the German military has been struggling to cope with shortages in armor and equipment as well as pressure from its NATO allies, who criticized the country for breaking promises on target budget. The proposed 2019 German federal budget, which…