Germany’s Scholz, France’s Macron Vow Unity as Trump Returns

- Germany’s Scholz, France’s Macron Vow Unity as Trump Returns
by https://www.dw.com/
German and French leaders Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron are holding bilateral talks. Topics include the new Trump administration, war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday visited Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron just days after US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The meeting marks the anniversary of the 1963 Elysee Treaty signed between the countries’ respective post-World War II leaders, Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle.
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Scholz: Trump will be a ‘challenge’
During a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace, the two leaders pledged to act towards a “strong” Europe. Scholz said Trump “will be, and so much is already clear, a challenge.”
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“Europe will not cower and hide, but instead be a constructive and assertive partner,” Scholz said, while adding this position will be “the basis for good cooperation with the new American president.” Macron said “it is necessary more than ever for Europeans and for our two countries to play their role of consolidating a united, strong and sovereign Europe.
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With Trump vowing tariffs on many US trade partners, the German and French leaders noted the steel, car and chemicals industries as important for the European economy. The French president said Wednesday that Europe should not only ramp up defense spending “but must also develop its own industrial base, its own capacities, its own industry.”
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Trump: The EU is ‘very, very bad to us’
A day prior, Trump told journalists that the “European Union is very, very bad to us,” while threatening tariffs to get “fairness” from the bloc.
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