On friendly gestures Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer does not lack on her first visit to the USA. As a gift, she brought along a historical map of the location Grafenwoehr, where her colleague Mark Esper was stationed years ago as a paratrooper.
As soon as the two have sat down at a long conference table on the first floor of the Pentagon on Monday morning, Kramp-Karrenbauer says smiling, she is very pleased that the defense minister has such strong ties to Germany.
Esper does not spend so much courtesy, he gets straight to the point. He quickly rattles his few sentences from the manuscript. They have it all. Germany's leadership, Esper says, is more important than ever, and of course that means investing far more in defense fast. As the largest economy in Europe, Berlin is in a strong position to make these investments, to strengthen the Alliance's capabilities and to achieve the goals of the Alliance.
Diplomats speak of a "Germany Obsession" Trumps
The few sentences give the line of the first meeting. Although the list of topics was long, defense spending remains the key sticking point in the German-American relationship. The minister's statement that the goal is to invest two percent of the domestic product for the German Armed Forces at one point is of little help. In the meantime, everyone in Washington knows the medium-term financial planning of the federal government, according to which the defense budget of today 1.36 percent soon goes down again instead of upward.
The Americans will not accept this line. Although politicians like Esper are not as rude as President Donald Trump. In terms of content, however, none of them deviate from his hard line. By no later than the Nato summit in December, Germany must reckon with harsh attacks from the White House 's fierce critics. He has always favored Berlin as the favorite destination for his desperate attacks. Meanwhile, German diplomats already speak of a real Germany obsession.
From the US point of view, Germany bashing has already paid off. Without the public outrage, the presidential outages via Twitter, and the ever-new demands for military missions, if the Germans did not commit themselves to increasing the defense budget and extending the Tornado mission over Syria, it is not without pride that Trump's people say. Consequently, Berlin does not need to expect Berlin to get away better in the months than before.
Kramp-Karrenbauer refuses maximum pressure on Iran
Even apart from the budget Kramp-Karrenbauer has not brought her colleague many offers. For a long time the two talked about the current crisis on the Gulf and the attacks on the Saudi oil facilities. For days, the US government has been trying to convince Europeans that Iran is behind the attacks. It is true that, for reasons of domestic policy, President Trump is struggling to punish Tehran militarily. Nevertheless, his diplomats are working to politically weld together a grand coalition against Iran.
The US can hardly rely on German aid. After their talks in Washington, Kramp-Karrenbauer made it clear that Berlin did not want to join the path of maximum pressure. Instead, they want to try to somehow keep alive the nuclear agreement terminated by Trump. Even a US-led military mission to secure the Straits of Hormuz grants Kramp-Karrenbauer a clear rejection and makes it clear that for Berlin only one European operation is in question.
Nevertheless, Kramp-Karrenbauer and Esper endeavor after their meeting to cover the differences with courtesies. Kramp-Karrenbauer invited the US colleagues to another exchange of ideas in Germany and hoped that he would stop by in Berlin as soon as possible. The US minister in turn sent a thank you shortly after the meeting by tweet. With Kramp-Karrenbauer he had discussed a wide range of topics "that are crucial for our military relations". Now he was sure, the American somewhat martial, that the alliance was dressed as in steel.
