Latest news with #FriederichMerz
CNN
4 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Live updates: Trump to meet Zelensky and EU leaders ahead of Putin summit
Update: Date: 11 min ago Title: Zelensky to arrive in Berlin for European talks with Trump Content: President Volodymyr Zelensky will arrive in Berlin today, according Ukrainian state media outlet Ukrinform, where he will join a virtual call between US President Donald Trump and European leaders. The video conference comes two days before Trump will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss an end to the Kremlin's war in Ukraine. Putin is expected to use the meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, on the northern edge of Alaskan capital Anchorage, to demand Ukraine cedes territory in return for a ceasefire. Zelensky has rejected the possibility of ceding land to Russia. He will join German Chancellor Friederich Merz for a bilateral meeting while in Berlin. Update: Date: 19 min ago Title: Trump will participate in Ukraine talks today Content: President Donald Trump is participating in online talks on Ukraine today, a White House official told CNN. The talks come ahead of Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said yesterday he was planning to host a virtual meeting with Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders to discuss the war in Ukraine. With the Trump-Putin summit looking set to sideline Ukraine and Europe, the German government on Monday said it was arranging a meeting of its own to prepare for 'possible peace negotiations' and potential 'territorial claims.' 'The talks will focus on further options for action to put pressure on Russia,' the German government said. Merz invited the leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Italy, Poland and Ukraine to the meeting, the government said, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and Trump and his Vice President JD Vance.
Times
17-07-2025
- Business
- Times
Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz are seeking similar solutions
After the grandeur of Emmanuel Macron's three-day state visit to the United Kingdom earlier this month, Thursday's drop-in by Friederich Merz, Germany's new chancellor, was an altogether more businesslike affair. It was no less significant for that, however. Just as President Macron's extravaganza was intended to finally lift the shadow lingering over Anglo-French relations since Brexit, so Mr Merz's visit, involving the signing of a portmanteau bilateral treaty covering everything from defence to immigration to rail, was meant to cement improving ties between Europe's two biggest economies. Britain's rapprochement with the European Union's heavyweights is due to two men. To the threat posed by Vladimir Putin and his brand of 19th-century expansionism has been added concern over the reliability of Donald Trump as a guarantor of European security. Ukraine has reminded London, Berlin and Paris that shared geography will always beat petty differences. Second-tier powers in a world of established and emerging behemoths, they stand or fall together. This resurgent triad simply recognises this geopolitical fact. Though Sir Keir Starmer is a man of the centre-left, a natural ally of Germany's SPD, he is not so different from Mr Merz, leader of the centre-right CDU. They are men in suits, lawyers by training, late to political leadership, not given to the theatrics of Messrs Trump and Macron. They are also in the market for solutions to similar problems. Both need to re-energise stagnant economies to pay for ageing populations and bigger armed forces. And both must find ways to curb illegal migration if they are defeat the populists — Reform in Britain and the AfD in Germany — menacing their right flanks. At the same time both leaders have things to offer. Rattled by Mr Trump's cavalier treatment of Ukraine and Nato, Germany is seeking a second nuclear blanket under which it can nestle. Britain and France are deepening nuclear co-operation and Mr Merz wants to join the party. Britain may be more accommodating in this regard. While the force de frappe is jealously guarded by Paris, Britain's missile submarines are committed to Nato, signalling a more collegiate approach to deterrence. Mr Merz's visit included the announcement of a new Anglo-German long-range missile that could evolve into a nuclear-tipped weapon. And while the British and French arms industries are direct competitors in some fields, those of Britain and Germany are more complementary. British expertise in fields like nuclear and stealth will be being combined with German cash. With a national debt of 'only' 60 per cent of GDP, and its famed debt brake released, the world's third-largest economy is on a defence spending spree. Britain's renewed importance in shoring up continental Europe's security has resulted in a more receptive attitude to its pleas for help on small boats. Mr Merz's promise to change German law to allow raids on boat storage sites is welcome, though hardly a panacea. The Anglo-German mutual defence clause included in the so-called Kensington treaty might be considered otiose, given Nato. But like the arrangement between London and Paris it signals the direction of travel, towards European strategic autonomy. Thrown together in a more dangerous world, facing similar domestic headaches, Europe's big three are coming together.
