Live Updates > Live Update Details
2026-07-13 10:02:44
[German President: Transatlantic Relations Have Reached Their Limits, Europe Still Needs Pragmatic Cooperation with the US] (1) German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an interview with German television channel ZDF that it is hard to imagine that transatlantic relations could be any more distant than they are now, and stressed that this estrangement was not caused by Germany. (2) Steinmeier pointed out that Germany is facing a “double epoch-making crisis”—the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine and the shift in American values, both of which have led to the growing estrangement of transatlantic relations. (3) However, he also stressed that Europe still needs the United States and should maintain a pragmatic cooperative relationship with the United States to safeguard key economic and security interests. (4) In March of this year, Steinmeier said that the attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel violated international law. This wording was more severe than the German government’s previous statements on the conflict, which embarrassed the government. (5) In April, US President Trump said he was seriously considering withdrawing from NATO, arguing that NATO’s unwillingness to assist the United States in securing passage through the Strait of Hormuz seriously damaged NATO’s credibility. He had previously called NATO a “paper tiger.”
