First meeting between Trump, Merkel gets off to a frosty start

PanARMENIAN.Net - Donald Trump refused to shake hands with Angela Merkel as a first meeting between the two leaders, which was postponed from Tuesday, March 14 because of snow, got off to a distinctly frosty start, The Telegraph reports.

The German chancellor and U.S. president posed for the press in the Oval Office, and photographers could be heard calling for the two to shake hands. Merkel turned and smiled at her host, asking him: "Do you want to have a handshake?"

But Trump, who had appeared to hold hands with Theresa May, the Prime Minister, when they walked together during her White House visit in January, looked down at the floor and avoided all eye-contact with his guest.

Merkel grimaced slightly but soon brushed off the awkward incident and began the task of attempting to build a new transatlantic partnership, quipping in their later press conference that the two leaders "will work together hand in hand".

The U.S. president reassured her that his administration would "respect historic institutions", amid fears in Europe that he could scale back U.S. military support for Nato, but insisted that allies "must pay what they owe".

"I reiterated to Chancellor Merkel my strong support for Nato as well as the need for our Nato allies to pay their fair share for the cost of defence," he said.

She responded by saying that Germany needed to meet Nato spending goals.

The two agreed on the need for cooperating in the fight against Islamic State terrorists in Syria, Iraq and Lybia and the peace process in Ukraine.

Merkel stressed the importance of improving relations with Russia and Trump was thought to have sought ideas from her on how to deal with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

She also delivered a staunch defence of globalisation, and said she hoped the U.S. and the EU could resume discussions on a trade agreement.

For his part, Trump rejected accusations his "America First" agenda was isolationist and said he was only attempting to improve trade deals to protect U.S. interests rather than pull back from the world entirely.

The question about his supposed isolationism clearly angered him, as he shot back at the reporter: "I don't know what newspaper you're reading, but I guess that would be an example of fake news."

Trump says his White House should not be blamed for quoting a Fox News analyst who accused British intelligence of helping former President Barack Obama spy on him.

There is no evidence such spying took place and GCHQ, the British electronic intelligence agency, has called the allegation "utterly ridiculous."

"We said nothing. All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television," he said.

"You shouldn't be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox."

He also doubled down on his unproven wiretapping allegation with a reference to 2013 reports that the U.S. listened in on Merkel's phone calls.

He says that when it comes to wiretapping, "At least we have something in common, perhaps."

Attempting to strike a positive tone, Merkel said it had been "much better to talk to one another than about one another".

The visit represented an opportunity for the two leaders to reset their early relationship.

On the campaign trail, Trump called Merkel's migration policy "catastrophic", saying she "should be ashamed of herself" for "ruining" Germany. He lashed out at Time magazine when it named Merkel Person of the Year in 2015 instead of him.

She has been a strident critic of his Muslim travel ban and plan to build a border wall with Mexico and took it upon herself to explain the Geneva Convention to him.

The German chancellor enjoyed a warm friendship with Barack Obama and was his closest global partner. She had also worked well with George W Bush before him.

Merkel had prepared carefully for the meeting, watching Trump's speeches, speaking to people who have met him and even studying a 1990 Playboy interview with the New York billionaire.

The visit was a tightrope walk for the German chancellor between building an effective partnership built on strong economic and security cooperation and representing her values and those of the German people, The Guardian said.

She is in a battle to win re-election for a fourth term later this year in Germany, where Trump's historically low popularity ratings are on a par with Vladimir Putin.