Obama touts Merkel and calls for the transatlantic treaty – The World

Le Monde | 24/04/2016 at 20:49 • Updated 04/24/2016 at 9:03 p.m. | By Frédéric Lemaître (Hanover, special envoy)

If Great -Bretagne fate of the European Union, the United States will make Germany their partner on the old Continent. Such was the message seemed to want to deliver Barack Obama at the first day of his visit to Hanover on Sunday 24th April. After an interview of 1 hour 30 minutes with Angela Merkel, the US president, who arrived in London, in front of the press, delivered a vibrant plea for the transatlantic free trade agreement (TTIP), but also multiplied . the praise for Merkel, stressing the role that Germany had taken in recent years on the international scene

on the TTIP, highly contested in Germany, Barack Obama said: “I do not expect that we will be able to finish the ratification of an agreement by the end of the year, but I expect we finished the negotiations of the agreement” .

as Angela Merkel, he held that free trade was good for employment in both the United States and Europe. A credo that he repeated in the early evening inaugurating the Hanover Fair, the main reason for his fifth trip to Germany.

Just before the arrival of Mr. Obama, the economy minister German Sigmar Gabriel warned: this transatlantic free trade agreement “will fail” if the US does not make concessions

Read. also: No US concessions, the transatlantic treaty will be a “failure”

“on the right side of history”

But what was especially striking in the speech of the US president, was the insistence with which he praised Angela Merkel. He literally carried his “friend Angela” to the skies, praising his consistency, leadership and loyalty. At his side, the Chancellor was jubilant. Especially when, at the end of his speech, Barack Obama, citing the refugee crisis, found that “Merkel is on the right side of history” .

While US President did not fail, on the Ukrainian issue, to take up the role of “President Hollande” , but it is obviously on “Angela” and Germany that the United States should, according to him, rely in the future.

of course, this assumes that Germany is involved even more in the management of international crises. Barack Obama said that the Europeans, NATO members, pledged in 2014 to increase military spending and bring them gradually to 2% of GDP.

engagement in war zones

Angela Merkel did not repeat that figure but stated that Germany must “increase its efforts in defense, especially regarding the hardware “. They should spend 34 billion currently to over 39 billion in 2020. Far however, 60 billion which would correspond to 2% of GDP.

Angela Merkel however stressed the importance of Germany’s engagement in Afghanistan, but also in Africa, alongside France, and Iraq. She described the German aid to Iraq peshmerga “paradigm shift” , as Germany had previously been reluctant to intervene in a war zone.

on Monday, Merkel-Obama duo will open three other partners since French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will join in Hanover for informal wrap.

But while the french president insisted that the TTIP is not in the agenda, as the Briton took his country on the path of a referendum whose outcome is uncertain and that the Italian is for the lifting of sanctions vis-à-vis Moscow is especially Germany that has hosted the white House, which compliments with regard to “Angela” are probably not totally devoid of ulterior motives.