In 16 years, this is Merkel's chancellorial career.
Merkel's current role as Acting Chancellor of Germany shows how influential she is. German politics is more complicated, and judging from the results of the election, it is necessary to form a coalition government. Although Merkel is likely to continue to serve as Chancellor of Germany if she runs, it is clear that the female chancellor who has served Germany for 16 years really cannot continue.
Last year, there were videos of Merkel shaking her body during a meeting with the leaders of other countries. It can be seen that Merkel may face huge physical challenges in dealing with complicated national affairs as she ages.
The man who has been in European politics for 16 years, before leaving Germany and European politics, did not forget to give the next German government "golden words", just on November 17, Merkel said that Europe should not "decouple" from China.
"We can learn a lot from each other, and in my opinion, complete decoupling is not right, it's harmful to us." She said.
China's important role for Europe is actually not only reflected in the economic field. Maintaining friendly relations with China is of great benefit to enhancing the world influence of Germany or the European Union. Now, both the European Union and Germany, and even the United States maintain close trade relations with China. If Europe loses the Chinese market and loses its relations with China, the future of the EU will be left to watch the United States.
The United States relies on its strong military strength to point fingers at the affairs of the European Union for many years. Far from it, let's talk about the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline built between Germany and Russia. If Germany did not have European influence and world influence, the US government might have completely cut off Nord Stream-2 long ago. It is precisely because the United States takes into account Germany's EU status and world influence that it is afraid.
Merkel's tenure of office has significantly strengthened Germany's world influence, whether it is in the Iranian issue, the Russian issue, the Ukrainian issue or even the Asian issue, Germany has a certain right to speak, but if Germany is self-contained, it can only be successful in the Western world, and Germany has no world influence after all.
Merkel has seen this clearly and has maintained friendly relations with China and Russia for so many years, which also shows from the side that China's attitude towards the West has always been open and inclusive, and the West is precisely the side that likes tit-for-tat confrontation.
In addition to Merkel at the critical time, the key node mentioned China, and on November 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin also mentioned China. Putin said that some Western countries are creating wedges between China and Russia in order to stir up friendly relations between China and Russia.
Putin also expressed his position that Russia will continue to strengthen friendly relations with China. Although Putin did not name and name which Western countries they were, it is clear that the West is envious, jealousy, and even hate the stable and good situation created by the good development of Sino-Russian relations.
Maintaining good relations with neighboring countries is an important support for economic development and defense and security. Without a good surrounding environment, it can be said that it is difficult to create a stable investment environment. In the military field, if we are hostile to neighboring countries, we will have to spend more military expenditure and energy on confronting our "neighbors," which is obviously not in line with the long-term peace and stability of any country.
In the case of Ukraine, Ukraine's relations with Russia are very bad now. The national economic and regional influence of Ukraine as a whole also continues to decline, although on the surface NATO has strengthened its relations with Ukraine, and even Said That Europe and the United States are strengthening relations with Ukraine. However, with the passage of time, Europe and the United States found that Ukraine did not have the ability to confront Russia, so the usable value of Ukraine will become smaller and smaller.
Now Ukraine seems to have become a pawn in the West's harassment of Russia. Because of the tense bilateral relations in the Donbass region, both Russia and Ukraine have to gather a large number of military forces around the Donbass, which indirectly depletes the national strength of both sides. For Ukraine, it is not only the loss of national strength, but also the loss of the Ukrainian people's trust in the government. Shouting all day long to liberate Donbass, but dare not fight, defense and security rely on NATO help, military needs US support, so how much regional discourse does Ukraine have?
Whether a country can become an indispensable part of bilateral or even multilateral relations depends first of all on the strength of the country, and only when you have the strength, others will look at you differently. The idea of joining any military alliance, what economic organization, in order to find refuge and thus rise to the top, is itself full of naivety and illusion.
The confrontation between Russia and Europe and the United States has not stopped, and although the United States is making concessions to Russia on some issues, it is also putting pressure on Russia on many issues. The energy issue, the Belarusian border refugee crisis, the United States has repeatedly named Russia, and the confrontation between the United States and Russia will continue to be an important focus of future international relations.