Washington : In his meeting in Washington with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US President Donald Trump would ask for advice on Russia and Ukrainian crisis, a senior administration official said on Friday.
“The President will be interested in hearing the chancellor’s views on her experience interacting with Putin,” Xinhua sid. Apart from hearing Merkel’s “insights into what it’s like to deal with Russians,” the official said Trump would also ask for advice on how US could help resolve the Ukraine conflict. Also, the two leaders are expected to discuss Germany’s level of defence spending for the NATO alliance.
“The message from the administration… has been strong and consistent, that all allies need to be making progress towards this 2% goal,” said the official. “So I expect that will be a topic of conversation for the plan to meet this commitment.”
During his campaign and also after winning the presidency, Trump repeatedly blasted Merkel for making a “catastrophic mistake” with her open door policy on refugees, while Merkel did not shy away from criticising Trump in the wake of his travel ban order that sought to temporarily ban travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries in January. IANS
