thank you very much today I'm honored to welcome Chancellor Angela Merkel back to
the White House over the past year I have enjoyed getting to know the
Chancellor very well through many productive calls discussions and
meetings we have a great relationship Chancellor I want to congratulate you
once again on your election victory fourth term in office it's really
something congratulations we're also pleased to
have our newly confirmed United States ambassador to Germany Richard Grinnell
an outstanding man and he's with us today and Richard congratulations do a
great job and I know you will thank you this confirmation was long overdue we've
been waiting a long time for Richard to get his clearance and he got it and it's
going to be special but we have a lot of people that are waiting approval and the
Democrats have been treating us extremely unfairly and they're gonna
have to move it along for decades the Alliance and friendship
between Germany and the United States has advanced the cause of peace
prosperity and freedom today our nation's face a wide array of shared
challenges and opportunities and I am confident that we will meet them
together with the same strength and resolve that has always defined the
United States German friendship this afternoon I want to congratulate the
Republic of Korea on its historic summit with North Korea we're encouraged by
president moon and Kim Jong Un's express goal of complete denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula I will be meeting with Kim jong-un in the coming weeks we look
forward to that and hopefully it will be productive I want to thank Chancellor
Merkel for her leadership in our campaign of maximum pressure on the
North Korean regime which has helped us to reach this important step this moment
where we are right now it's taken a long time many many decades to get here let's
see what happens we seek a future of peace prosperity and harmony for the
whole Korean Peninsula unlocking not only a brighter future for the people of
Korea but for the people of the world however in pursuit of that goal we will
not repeat the mistake of past administrations maximum pressure will
continue until denuclearization occurs I look forward to our meeting it should be
quite something and our meetings today the Chancellor and I discussed Iran the
Iranian regime fuels violence bloodshed and chaos all across the Middle East we
must ensure that this murderous regime does not even get close to a nuclear
weapon and that Iran ends its proliferation of dangerous missiles and
its support for terrorism no matter where you go in the Middle East wherever
there's a problem Iran is right there as we eradicate what little remains of Isis
in Syria we must also ensure that Iran does not profit from our success to
prevent this outcome it is essential that our coalition and regional partners
step up their financial and military contributions to the anti-isis efforts
some of these countries are immensely wealthy and they're going to start
paying for it and paying for this tremendous help that we've given them
the Chancellor and I also had a productive discussion about the security
of Europe and the responsibility of European nations to properly
contribute to their own defense we addressed the need to strengthen NATO
and the NATO alliance by ensuring that all member states honor their commitment
to spend 2% and hopefully much more of GDP on defense it is essential that our
NATO allies increase their financial contribution so that everyone is paying
their fair share we look forward to seeing further progress towards improved
burden sharing a lot of people have stepped up a lot of countries have
stepped up and they're gonna have to continue to do so tremendous amount of
additional money has been raised for NATO over the past 16 months and I'm
proud to have helped but they have to keep going in this age of international
crime smuggling terrorism and traffic it is also essential that we have strong
border security and immigration control this is fundamental to national defence
also vital to our security and that of our allies is America's ability to
maintain a strong and robust manufacturing base which we really are
doing in the United States we have additional steel plants opening steel
plants are expanding aluminum is doing great a lot of things are happening that
we're never going to happen before that's why we must have a fair and
reciprocal trading relationship with our friends and partners we have a trade
deficit in goods with the European Union of approximately hard to believe 151
billion dollars a year including a 50 billion dollar annual trade deficit in
autos and auto parts I'm committed to working with Chancellor Merkel to reduce
barriers for United States exports to remedy these trade imbalances and deepen
our economic ties we also welcome the Chancellor's partnership in promoting
major reforms to international organization
like the World Trade Organization which has not treated the United States well
to protect sovereignty and ensure fairness the close cooperation across
multiple fronts military intelligence economic academic is critical to the
defence of our civilization as we know it and the close friendship between the
German and American people enriches the lives of millions and millions of our
citizens Chancellor thank you again for visiting the White House it's an honor
to have you our alliance is strong and thriving and together we will overcome
shared obstacles seized upon shared opportunities and build an incredible
future for our country and our people thank you very much
Thank You Chancellor thank you very much yes thank you very much I would like to
thank you for the very warm reception here in the White House and for giving
us this opportunity to have an exchange of views this is my first visit after
the re-election to a country outside of Europe and I thought it was very
important to underline that for Germany the transatlantic ties are of prime
importance we are very much aware of the fact that these transatlantic ties are
for us of crucial of indeed existential importance these transatlantic ties have
given a great contribution to our reunification the first part of my life
I spent on the other side of the Iron Curtain and the fact that it was
possible to for our country to reunite is essentially due to the United States
and their contribution and this will be most important also for our future
cooperation cooperation that is more urgently needed than ever
in view of the turbulences all over the world so Germany will continue to be a
reliable partner in NATO in our lion is a reliable partner within the
European Union all the more so since today we fight against nuclearization of
Iran against terrorism against Isis in Iraq and Syria against terrorism in
Afghanistan or in Africa and we depend currently on each other today we meet at
a point in time where it has become very clear that the strength of the American
President and where he really saw to it that the sanctions against North Korea
are abided by our respect it has opened new possibilities open new ways this
first meeting between kim yun and the south korean president
moon is a first step on a road that will hopefully lead into a better future we
Germans know only too well what it means after years of decoration a separation
of years of division to have these first contacts but we will continue to be
vigilant to see to it that the nuclear annihilation is stopped of North Korea
and that a nuclear-free zone is established in on the Korean Peninsula
we think that this is essential we will have to see also in fight against the
the Iranian attempts to become nuclear will go on we are of the opinion that
the jcpoa is a first step that has contributed to slowing down their
activities in this particular respect to also establish a better verification and
monitoring process but we also think from a German point perspective that
this is not sufficient in order to see to it that Iran's ambitions are corrupt
and are contained it is most important to see that Iran after all is trying to
exert a geopolitical influence in Syria in Lebanon and in Iraq and when we have
to see to it that this attempt at influence is curbed is contained and
that beyond jcpoa reliability can be established
I think that Europe and the United States of America ought to be in
lockstep on this or to work together very closely also to end the terrible
bloodshed in Syria and to bring about a solution for the region as a whole
beyond that and over and above that we also addressed the tasks that we see
ahead on defense Germany in 2019 is going to earmark a share of 1.3 of its
GDP on defense that has been an increase over the past few years we haven't yet
met the target where we should be but we are getting closer to the target to the
guideline that we've set out for ourselves in Wales on trade I think it's
most important to see that very close relations on trade exists between
Germany and the European Union on the one hand and the United States on the
other we want fair trade we want a trade that is in line with the multilateral
trading system of a WTO but we also acknowledge that for many many years WTO
has not been able to bring about international agreements so bilateral
agreements may well replace that that's something that we on behalf of the
European Union already have done and have negotiated with a number of
countries of the past few years so I can well envisage such negotiations with the
United States as well but obviously that has been reconciled and I would also
like to point out that Germany on the one hand has very closely trade
relations with you the president obviously is not satisfied with the
trade surplus we have already been able to reduce that our trade surplus that is
with the United States but we still have a long way to go but the United States
also due to the tax reform again has become a very interesting place to
invest for our companies and we can say with great pride that not only hundreds
of thousands of cars are exported from Germany to the United States but but
from the u.s. to the rest of the world hands with the thousands of cars that
are built here in the States are exported to the rest of the world with
creating American jobs and I believe that the workers he have very good
working conditions so that again is another bond that ties
two countries together we will continue to discuss those trade issues we will
have the NATO meeting in the summer we will meet again there and let me say in
conclusion that apart from the political relations that are very close and well
we sometimes may look at if you issues differently but generally round on the
basis of friendship on partnership we are linked by ties in the world of
science in the world of culture we still have the large host the largest number
of troops ever since 1945 about 17 million members of the US military was
stationed in Germany and a lot of them have established very close ties very
close friendships with Germans and I'm delighted to see that now the Ambassador
can very soon when he's in Germany work on this basis and we're delighted that
we finally have an ambassador thank you
we'll take some questions Blake Burman yes like Thank You mr.
president Chancellor Merkel I'll ask a couple
questions of the president first I want to ask you step over it's crowded in
here I want to ask you about a couple comments that you made in the Oval
Office earlier in which you said about North Korea that they've played the u.s.
in the past like a fiddle but that's not going to happen to us do you as it
relates to hopefully getting peace on the Korean Peninsula denuclearization of
the Korean Peninsula do you feel as if you need to be the closer in that deal
do you want to be the closer in that deal or do you think that's something
that is shared by all of the major stakeholders all of the the world
leaders within that region and secondly indulge us if you might you said that
the relationship with North Korea has been strong or one of the words you used
have you spoken with Kim jong-un himself or do you plan on speaking with it I
don't want to comment on that do you plan on speaking have a very good
working relationship we're setting up a meeting
things have changed very radically from a few months ago
you know the name-calling and a lot of other things we we get a kick every once
in a while out of the fact that I'll be watching people that fail so badly over
the last 25 years explaining to me how to make a deal with North Korea I get a
big big kick out of that but we are doing very well I think that something
very dramatic could happen they're treating us with great respect and you
know what's going on with South Korea and I think president moon of South
Korea was very generous and saying that we helped make the Olympics a great
success because of the fact that as you know there was a tremendous animosity
there was a tremendous problem going on and all of a sudden people started
buying tickets because whole different feeling when North said we'd love to go
to the Olympics so a lot of good things are happening with respect to North
Korea President Obama told me when I had the one meeting with him he said that's
your biggest problem that's gonna be the most difficult thing you have and
honestly I wish it was handled earlier I wish it were handled by another
administration years ago I'm not just talking about President Obama I'd go
back to any administration you want but over the last 25 years this should have
been handled a long time ago not now this should not have been left for me to
handle but we will handle it we're handling it well and hopefully there'll
be peace for North Korea South Korea Germany I mean everything is included
Japan the chancel has been very helpful in the maximum pressure campaign as I
said really very helpful so have many other nations President Xi of China has
been really good at the border everyone's surprised at how tight he
clamped down everyone said that he'd just talked about it he wouldn't do it
what he did it and he did it out of a relationship that we have and also out
of the fact that we're negotiating trade deals and I think that's also very
important to him hopefully we'll come up with something that's good for both
countries so I think some very good things can happen with respect to North
Korea we're setting up meetings now we're down to two countries
to a site and we'll let you know what that site is do you have a question for
the chance just just to follow up or quickly do you do you feel like it's
your responsibility for this to eventually get settled between North and
South Korea I think I have a responsibility I think other presidents
should have done it I think the responsibility has fallen on the
shoulders of the President of the United States and I think we have I think I
have a responsibility to see if I can do it and if I can't do it it'll be a very
tough time for a lot of countries and a lot of people it's certainly something
that I hope I can do for the world this is beyond the United States this is
a world problem and it's something that I hope I'm able to do for the world
okay thank you and Chancellor Chancellor Merkel sorry sorry Boris thank you very
much I'm just wondering if you've been given any assurances that the European
Union will be exempt from steel and aluminum tariffs come Tuesday the May
1st deadline did the president Trump tell you what he may or may not do thank
you the president the president will decide that is very clear we had an
exchange refused on the current state of affairs of the negotiations and the
respective assessments on where we stand on this and the decision lies with the
present that was okay mr. Ross please
well the Chancellor but I'd like to start with a question on Iran for you
mr. president after a long day of talks with you president McCraw went to
Congress warned of a new war in the Middle East and asked the world and the
United States to respect the sovereignty of all countries including Iran in the
absence of a new agreement are you prepared to use military force to rein
in the nuclear program in Iran or do you have another plan B that is not an
agreement and not military force I don't talk about whether or not I'd use
military force it's not appropriate to be talking about but I can tell you this
they will not be doing nuclear weapons that I can tell you okay they're not
gonna be doing nuclear weapons you can bank on it okay what is kind of an offer
i name you madam Chancellor only a year ago people in Berlin were very much
concerned about president Trump not being ready to show toughness against
Russia now you've come to Washington with the concern that a new round of
sanctions against the so-called oligarchs may well be detrimental to the
German economy have you asked the president to exempt German companies
from these sanctions and are you generally weren't worried that the
United States because the parent president is trying to be toughest with
President Putin may well change completely and may well be a treating
Russia too harshly without coordinating with you well we discussed Ukraine and
here we work together very closely against the illegitimate actions of
Russia due to for example annexation of Crimea and also the situation they
caused in eastern Ukraine I'm very pleased to say that we work very closely
with the American administration in complementing the Mint's format and the
sanctions very much our thing of the Congress and we work together with the
representative the administration here also and very
closely with the Treasury we exchanged views on what sort of secondary effects
that may have and looking at the conflicts we have with Russia for
example in Syria there is a wide degree of agreement and no one is interested in
not having good relations with Russia but wherever there are conflicts
wherever there are certain things happening as for example in Ukraine we
have to call a spade a spade and the principle of in territorial integrity of
the country such as Ukraine is one that needs to be upheld and that needs to be
enforced but madam Chancellor the exchange was it satisfactory on these
issues between America and Europe is it as closely aligned as you want yes
whenever I have questions I can ask those questions and I believe that the
exchange is there again sanctions have been adopted by Congress we are pointed
out to what sort of effects that has at the belief that the file finance
minister and the Treasury have talked about this yesterday when they met at
the with other finance ministers at the financing for Syria conference yesterday
and whenever I have problems I can talk to our American counterparts be pleased
CBN mr. president two questions for you the first one's on Ronnie Jackson it's
been one day since he bowed out I know it's only been less than 24 hours have
you have a new nominee for the secretary for the Department of Veteran Affairs
and my second question is on the u.s. embassy set to open in Jerusalem in
three weeks have you decided if you do plan to attend and also can you confirm
if Treasury secretary Steve minuchin is leading a delegation that could include
your son-in-law Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Ronnie Jackson Admiral Doctor is
one of the finest men that I've met over the last long period of time high
quality high quality family I just met them and I explained what happened I
explained that Washington can be a very mean place you don't know about that
a nasty place the false accusations that were made about him by senator tester
from a great state I don't think that state is gonna put up with it these were
false accusations about a great man about a man who has a son who's a top
student at Annapolis about a man that's given his life to this country and to
the military a brave man who would have been a great leader to say the kind of
things that he said you had President Obama giving him an a-plus report you
had President Bush giving him an a-plus report you have President Trump
giving him an a-plus report and to make statements of things that most people
said never happened never even happened calling them names was to me by disgrace
an absolute disgrace and I think it's something we learned from I called him
today I said in a certain way you're in a in a very big way you're an American
Hero because you've exposed the system for
some horrible things I've had it happen to me with the Russian collusion hoax to
hoax but I came into the job understanding that things happen he
didn't he's a great doctor he's a great Admiral he didn't really think a thing
like this could happen and I think it's a disgrace so I just want to comment on
that and actually I'm glad you asked the question I think this man has been
treated he's an American Hero and I think he's been treated very unfairly
okay as far as the nomination have you put forward a new nomination yes I have
many people that want the position if you can believe it with all of this
being said we have some excellent people some very political people some people
that a thing like that wouldn't happen or if it did happen I guess they'll
handle it somewhat differently but we have many people that want that
job we're very proud of the job we've done for the veterans the veterans have
been we've got an accountability approved which is something that for
years for years they've been trying to get as you know they couldn't get it
approved we got accountability so that when somebody treats our veterans badly
we can fire them so fast almost as fast as they fire people in Germany we'll get
rid of them and I will tell you we're getting choice we're putting choice in
very very strongly we have tremendous support in the Senate for that but I do
I have a lot of people that want the job we're getting we're doing a great job
over there and for the vets and you know that was one of the things that to me
was the most important we had tremendous support from the vets we're getting
great reports but getting a things such as accountability done will be soon
getting choice done meaning if a veteran stands on line and can't get to a doctor
for various reasons they're going to a private doctor in this country is going
to pay they're not gonna wait nine weeks online for a cure to something that
could have been very easy to cure and then they end up dying from it so we're
going to with I'm very proud of what we've done and I will tell you your new
head of the VA is going to be very exceptional we have some exceptional
people that want to do the job before I get to Chancellor Merkel I wanted to
backtrack to the u.s. embassy opening up in Jerusalem you said in the past that
you would like to go so they came to me there's a little bit about government
somebody said could I tell this story and they came to me with a proposal for
a 1 billion dollar embassy in Jerusalem and the papers Mike Pence can tell you
the papers were put before me to sign an application for more than 1 billion
dollars to build an embassy I said what are you talking about a billion dollars
you know most embassies are like a single story and they said yes sir it's
1 billion dollars and I had my name half-son then I noticed the figure and I
didn't I never got to the word Trump I had donald sign but i never got to the
workshop and I called my ambassador who's a great lawyer
most people in business know David Friedman he's the ambassador to Israel
and loves Israel loves our country loves Israel too and I said what's this one
billion he said I can build it for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars I
said well he said I can build it for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars the
embassy we have a building we have the site we already own the site we own the
building I can take a corner of the building and for one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars we can fix it up make it beautiful open our embassy instead of
in ten years from now we can open it up in three months and that's what we did
but I said David let's not go from a billion dollars to a hundred and fifty
thousand let's go down three four hundred thousand and that's what we did
we would take a piece of the building it's gonna be beautiful and it'll be
somewhat temporary but it could be for many years because by the time they
build it the other way it's gonna be many many years they were looking for
sites we already have a site and we have a great site the Saints better than any
thing you could imagine but that's the way government works they were going to
spend a billion dollars and we're going to spend much less than a half a million
could have done it for much less than that but I said let's make it really
nice so that's what it is I'm a go very proud of it Jerusalem has
been a subject that's been promised for many years as you know the embassy in
Jerusalem it's been promised for many many years by presidents they will made
campaign promises and they never had the courage to carry it out I carried it out
so I may go it's getting ready to open and I do want to tell that story though
because there are a couple of people that got to see it including Mike but
others where literally they were going to spend a billion dollars that we're
spending a tiny tiny fraction of that in the hundreds of thousands of dollars
instead and it will be very nice maybe it'll be nicer than a billion dollar
building okay for the Chancellor please well transfer I wanted to ask about the
Iran nuclear deal you just heard President Trump say that Iran will not
be restarting the nuclear program you can bank on it do you fear that if the
u.s. backs out that Iran restart the nuclear program and also
you're the second european union leader or european leader to stop here at the
White House this week what improvements did you recommend to the president that
needs to be changed in order to keep the US and the deal well I set up my
position and that is that I believe that obviously the this agreement is anything
but perfect it will not solve all the problems with Iran it is one piece of
the mosaic one building block if you like on which we can build up this
structure and that when the United Kingdom France and Germany work together
with the American colleagues this was brought about and we will now see what
sort of decisions are made by American and a partner's I said that the whole of
the region obviously is of prime importance to us because it's not that
thousand kilometers away as it is the case for example between the USA and and
Syria but Syria and Iran are countries that are right on our doorstep so that
is of prime importance for us and we will continue to be in very close talks
on this whole doin's mrs. Jones please
Cristina dunes from hai nasha posture madam Chancellor you used to describe
America as a destination of your sort of what you ever wanted to be and now it
said in Germany by you that Europe actually has to take its destiny in its
own hands and that you cannot rely on the United States supporting you all the
time have you talked with the president about this development where this
unhappy development that drifting apart and should not you in many ways deliver
also on this promise of significantly increasing the defense spending and just
you mr. president a lot of people are irritated by the way that you fulfill
this most important job that exists in the rest of the world with certainly in
certain aggressive Twitter messages and so on I want to ask you
whether and certain fats that you make does this mean that in the future there
will be less compromise struck by the United States less reconciliation and
how will you decide on the first of May when it is about a possible problem
extension of the exemption for terrace what is your position on this mr.
president will there be a trade war with this big bloc Europe or do you see an
opportunity of actually not going into such a trade war
well I think for a lot of people in Germany but also in many other countries
people wish and love to go to the United States we have just said there are more
than 40 million people who have their roots in Germany in Europe here in the
United States also for many people in Germany in Europe America is a great
country and even though we may see matters differently on certain political
issues we have to address that we have to talk about this but this land of
freedom this a great country obviously still remains very attractive and so I
continue to say that and I said yes Germany and Europe have to take the
destiny destiny into their own hands because we can no longer as we used to
during the period of the Cold War during the years when Germany was divided rely
on America coming and helping us America is still helping us but step by step we
will simply have to increase our contribution to and America has been
very much engaged very broadly engaged in parts of the world that are far away
from America and the people he of America to have said well what's in it
for us so the president is saying you ought to have some more garden sharing
so in a way we're maturing where we're growing out of a role where after the
Second World War people were rather happy for Germany not becoming too
engaged not too active because during the period of national socialism we
created such incredible injustice in the world and but this post-war period is at
an it's more than it's possible period is
well that that's essentially seventy years ago so we as Germans have to learn
to assume more responsibility we're proud to be the second largest troop
contributor in NATO we've done a lot over the past few years obviously from
the president's perspective not perhaps fast enough but I would say as German
Chancellor we have made important steps in the right direction and we will
continue to do so we cannot rely if conflicts are on our
store doorstep for others to step in and we ourselves don't have to give in a
contribution and this contribution will have to increase over the next few years
to come that has something to do with military engage with the defense
defending with combating and tackling root causes of flight but also with the
readiness to become more engaged in diplomacy Germany for example for the
first time is part and parcel of the so-called small group it has just had a
meeting in Paris on Syria together with the US with the UK with Saudi Arabia and
we want to give our contribution to this as well it's our obligation it's our
duty I don't think that we ought to complain about this we have to learn as
a big country as an economically successful country as a presence as your
economically successful but militarily and politically you don't wish to do so
much we have to learn to assume our role and there are differences of opinion
we as friends can discuss that openly Thank You Chancellor we need a
reciprocal relationship which we don't have the United States right now has a
trade deficit with the European Union of 151 billion dollars and the Chancellor
and I have discussed it today at length and we're working on it and we want to
make it more fair and the Chancellor wants to make it more fair same thing
with NATO we have a far greater burden than we should have other countries
should be paying more and I'm not saying Germany alone other countries should be
paying more we're protecting Europe and yet we pay by far more than anybody else
and NATO is wonderful but it helps Europe more than it helps us and why are
we paying a vast majority of the costs so we're working on the
things it's been unfair and I don't blame the Chancellor and I don't blame
Germany I don't even blame the European Union I blame the people that preceded
me for allowing this to happen there's no way we should have a trade deficit of
151 billion dollars so we're going to make it reciprocal we're going to make
it a much more fair situation and I think in the end everybody's going to be
very happy I think both countries I view this as many countries but looking at it
as one block will will really benefit there's tremendous tremendous potential
between the European Union and the United States and I think that's going
to happen there's also tremendous benefit to NATO when people pay what
they have to be paying some countries actually pay more than this of us that
they think the United States is I've been told by numerous country Poland
being one Poland is great I mean they pay actually a little bit more than
they're supposed to be paying or have to pay because they feel the United States
is more than carrying the load and perhaps they feel it's not fair but it's
something we very much appreciate but I believe that you know when I look at the
numbers in Germany and some other countries they may not like Donald Trump
but you have to understand that means I'm doing a good job because I'm
representing the United States angela is representing Germany she's doing a
fantastic job my predecessors did not do a very good job but we'll try and catch
you okay we'll try we're going to we're going to have a reciprocal relationship
and it's going to be something that benefits all of us okay thank you very
much everybody thank you Thank You Angela thank you
very much
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