Merkel, Bush: Getting Cozy in Washington
In her first press conference on U.S. soil, new German Chancellor Angela Merkel indirectly repudiated the long-time Franco-German axis -- and planted the seeds for a deep revamping of U.S.-German relations. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President George W. Bush held their first summit Jan. 13 in Washington, D.C. The joint press conference that followed was notable for what the two world leaders said -- but even more so for what they did not say.
Merkel's opening remarks were clearly not intended for her U.S. audience. What started out as a pep-talk for the Germans evolved into a description of the ways in which U.S. interests complement those of Germany. Merkel's government is as untested as it is unwieldy, being as it is a seven-week-old coalition of Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats and the center-left Social Democrats once led by her opponent, Gerhard Schroeder.
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