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Germany’s president has urged the US to remember that Europe is an “indispensable” partner, as fears among western allies about a potential second Donald Trump presidency overshadowed a visit by US leader Joe Biden to Berlin on Friday.
In a thinly veiled reference to Trump’s first term in office, when he threatened to quit Nato and lambasted the then-chancellor Angela Merkel, Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that a few years ago the distance between the US and Europe had grown “so wide that we almost lost each other”.
President Biden’s election in 2020, Steinmeier said, had “restored Europe’s hope in the transatlantic alliance literally overnight”.
He added: “In the months to come, I hope that Europeans remember that America is indispensable for us. And I hope that the Americans remember your allies are indispensable for you.”
Steinmeier, who awarded Biden Germany’s highest order of merit, gave voice to the deep foreboding in Europe about the upcoming US election and stressed that US-German friendship was “existentially important”.
Biden, visibly moved by Steinmeier’s glowing tribute, praised German leaders for their response to Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, hailing their “wisdom to recognise a turning point in history, an assault on a fellow democracy and also on principles that upheld 75 years of peace and security in Europe”.
He and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have moved in lockstep on Ukraine over the past two and a half years, gradually stepping up their military support for Kyiv while also trying to avoid escalation between Moscow and Nato.
Though the two leaders have at times drawn criticism from Ukraine and its supporters for their cautious approach, Biden said that Germany and the US had “stood together to support the people of Ukraine in their fight, for democracy, for their very survival”.
Speaking before his meeting with Scholz, Biden stressed the need for Ukraine’s supporters to “sustain our resolve”.
He also urged Berlin to maintain its commitment to spending at least 2 per cent of its GDP on defence — a target required by Nato but one that Germany only reached last year for the first time since the early 1990s. “Please keep it up, because it matters,” Biden said.
The swansong visit by the US president to Europe, originally scheduled for last week but postponed because of the recent hurricanes that hit the US, comes as European leaders brace for the US election on November 5.
They have raced to beef up their military aid for Ukraine amid fears that a Trump victory would lead to the end of support for Kyiv and see him push for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to give up chunks of territory to Russia as part of peace talks.
Steinmeier said that the election result was “only America’s choice to make”. But he added: “We as Europeans have a choice too. We have a choice to do our part — to be unwavering in our support for Ukraine, to invest in our common security, to invest in our shared future. And . . . to stand by the transatlantic alliance no matter what.”
During his one-day visit to the German capital, Biden will also meet French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to discuss Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East.