On July 15, Merkel began her 16-year tenure, and the 23rd and should be the last visit to the United States. From the perspective of arrangement, the Biden administration cherishes this old friend very much.
Merkel went to Vice President Harris's house in the morning for breakfast. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign leaders who have visited Washington before have not been treated as having dinner together.
And it was Harris' first foreign leader to entertain at home after moving into the U.S. vice president's residence.
Merkel was later awarded an honorary degree by Johns Hopkins University. But that's nothing for Merkel, as it's her 18th honorary degree.
After that, Merkel met with Biden at the White House. After completing the routine of bilateral meetings and joint press conferences, the Bidens had dinner with merkels.
One of the most anxious questions for the Biden administration is: How will the post-Merkel-american relationship develop? One of the most important tasks for Biden during Merkel's visit to the United States is to ensure the continuity of the Relationship between Germany and Germany.
Merkel's Christian Democratic Coalition is leading the way in the current polls, but the Greens and the Social Democrats are also fiercely contested. Although the three parties are divided, they are united in their positions on building a strong transatlantic relationship.
In order to ensure the smooth development of the next U.S.-Usan relations, the two sides today took two initiatives. First, the Washington Declaration was issued, articulating a vision of working together to address different policy challenges and a commitment to defend human rights and democracy. Second, the two sides also launched the Forum for the Future, which brings together Americans and Germans from different fields to engage in dialogue on the economy, climate, and energy.
Biden also compromised on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the most controversial of the Virtues. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department eased sanctions threats against Nord Stream 2, as the pipeline is expected to be completed by the end of August, and the threat has lost its substance. But Biden warned Russia: "Don't weaponize energy. ”
In terms of relations with China, China has surpassed the United States as Germany's largest trading partner since 2016. For Germany, he, more than any other U.S. ally, wants to see tensions between the United States and China. In an article, Thorsten Benner, founder of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, described Merkel as the "nemesis" of Biden's China policy.
The ideological struggle between the West and China is one of the few areas where Democrats and Republicans in the United States have reached a consensus, and although Merkel today said that common values are the basis of China policy, from the perspective of practical actions, she has not enthusiastically supported this consensus.
Ahead of Merkel's visit, one of the main messages conveyed by senior German officials in interviews with the media was that Europe may not have come out of the haze of Trump's ill-influence. Bayer, Germany's transatlantic coordinator, told The New York Times that there is concern that other governments in the United States may re-emerge to return to the policies of the Trump administration.
With merkel's term over, such tensions did not end with it. While polls show that Germans view Biden better than Trump, Germans' perception of the United States has changed more deeply.
Data from last year's Pew poll showed that 55 percent of Germans believe China has overtaken the United States to become the world's leading economic power. A Poll by Le Monde in December showed that only 17 percent of Germans supported taking the side of the United States in a potential U.S.-China conflict, with three-quarters preferring to remain neutral.
Most countries see China as the dominant economy
When Merkel first took office in 2005, U.S.-U.S. relations were in the midst of a "diplomatic ice age." At that time, because Of Germany opposed the United States' invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush had few friends in Germany. The United States and Germany also have major differences over issues such as Guantanamo prison and climate change.
But in the years since Merkel took office, Bush and Merkel have become increasingly harmonious. The picture of the two eating barbecue together in Germany is also very raw.
(Guess what it's grilled?) ）
Afterwards, Bush invited Merkel to visit her farm in Texas.
And one of the most famous "noodles" of Bush and Merkel was the neck massage of George W. Bush at the 2006 Group of Eight Summit, which frightened Merkel a lot!
Not long ago, Bush Jr. recalled that it was a spontaneous reaction to the friendship between the two people, not a real massage, but a natural reaction between acquaintances.
Obama's relationship with Merkel opened with embarrassment. Obama, who was still running for U.S. president in 2008, wanted to speak at the iconic Brandenburg Gate, but Merkel turned it down. Because Merkel did not want the foreign politician to use the symbolic Brandenburg Gate as a platform for election. In the end, Obama had to choose the Berlin Victory Column.
(Unprecedented pomp and circumstance, with 200,000 people present)
In 2013, an explosive news shocked German politics! For years, the NSA monitored Merkel's phone calls!
But after Mr. Obama said the surveillance program had stopped, Merkel tried to maintain friendly relations with the United States. The two sides did not tear their faces. Mr. Obama also had a sweet mouth, saying Merkel was his longest-term, most trusted partner in his tenure. Before Obama left office, he made one last phone call to Merkel, and Michelle and Merkel's husband joined the call.
After Trump took office, the relationship between Germany and germany once again fell to the bottom. Trump said NATO was obsolete, leaving allies at one point afraid that Trump would pull the United States out of NATO. From defense spending to trade tariffs, to climate change, there is little common language between virtue and virtue.
When Merkel visited the White House in 2017, another historic noodle scene came. After the Oval Office meeting, Merkel tried to shake Trump's hand, but the other side was completely immersed in her own world.
And that's not the most embarrassing moment between Merkel and Trump. At the 2018 G7 summit, Merkel spearheaded the crusade against Trump over Trump's refusal to sign the joint statement.
German political analyst Bram pointed out that Trump is not the cause of structural changes in the relationship between the United States and Germany and Europe, but a symptom.
After four years of sword-wrenching rivals with Trump, Merkel welcomes her old friend Biden to the post and is willing to open a new chapter in the U.S.-Germany relationship. Biden also responded positively, wanting to revive the Alliance between Germany and Germany. Biden also quickly reversed his predecessor's decision to withdraw troops from Germany, ending the trade dispute with Europe and abandoning sanctions related to Nord Stream 2. Compared with Germany under Merkel in 2021 and Germany under Merkel in 2005, doubts about American power have actually deepened.
American scholars have described Merkel's visit as both a farewell ceremony and a victory journey.
Biden praised Merkel today: "Merkel is the first female chancellor in German history, the first chancellor from the former East Germany, the second longest chancellor after Helmut Kohl, her life is a model for Germany's pioneering service, and I sincerely believe that she is also a model for the world." ”
But Charles Lane, a Washington Post columnist, wrote this week that for so many years, Americans have actually misunderstood Merkel, and that her image as a representative of liberalism is only highlighted in the contrast of American partisan politics. The progressive scholar, who received an honorary doctorate from Harvard, openly opposed gay marriage in 2019 and against a parliamentary vote on marriage equality in 2017.
Writing this, Xiao Wang can't help but sigh, the only thing merkel hasn't changed much in the past 16 years is her appearance! Even the hairstyle is 16 years old.
Perhaps today is Merkel's last visit to the United States as German chancellor, but it may not be her last personal trip to the United States. In 2019, Merkel revealed in an exclusive interview that she had a wish to be able to listen to Bruce Springsteen's rock and roll in the United States while traveling by car after retirement.