U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at Lambeth Palace on can also eight, 2019 in London | Pool photo through Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty photographs
US secretary of state had more desirable things to do than go to Germany, and it hasn't gone down smartly.
via Matthew Karnitschnig
updated 5/14/19, 4:54 AM CET
BERLIN — all and sundry knows Germans hate tardiness. but when you want to really push a Teuton over the facet, cancel a meeting at the ultimate minute.
simply ask U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who canceled a visit to Berlin Tuesday, jilting Chancellor Angela Merkel and foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
"here is tricky to excuse," the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the daily bulletin of Germany's bobo elite, seethed. What may well be extra "urgent" than what would were Pompeo's first reliable consult with to Berlin as secretary of state, the paper questioned.
That the reply to that question, at least in Pompeo's view, become Iran, best enraged the Germans extra. Berlin continues to dangle to the illusion that Europe can store the nuclear cope with Iran that the U.S. deserted a year in the past and regards U.S. policy towards Tehran as belligerent.
The incontrovertible fact that Pompeo skipped Berlin to take pleasure in some critical saber-rattling vis-à-vis Iran from Baghdad most effective added insult to injury.
The extra afflicted Germany's relationship with another country turns into, the extra it clings to the rituals of foreign diplomacy.
Germany's professional reaction to the cancellation has been considered one of equanimity. at the back of the scenes, officers are livid.
whereas this is partly as a result of the complex state of German-American relations in the Trump period, it also displays the deep significance of formality in German foreign coverage.
The extra troubled Germany's relationship with a different nation becomes, the extra it clings to the rituals of overseas diplomacy.
in the German view, dialogue, no count how devoid of substance, is preferable to silence. trust Merkel's continued engagement with Vladimir Putin in the wake of Russia's incursions into Ukraine. The German chief spoke to him dozens of instances after Russia's annexation of Crimea.
while her efforts did not persuade Putin to trade route, her home audience gave her an A for effort.
So besides the fact that Pompeo's talk over with promised to yield little beyond a photo-op and a few well mannered small talk, the Germans anticipated him to head during the motions.
in no way intellect that Pompeo made it clear the he plans to reschedule the Berlin shuttle and talk over with within the near future, the secretary's no-reveal become nothing wanting an affront.
So just how mad are they?
"The German-American relationship is in tatters," the Süddeutsche concluded.
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