United States or Germany. This was the NATO member’s dilemma at the 11 and 12 July summits in Brussels.
The summit was characterized by Trump-Merkel’s confrontation, on which the German magazine “Der Spiegel” published a long analysis. What the German weekly describes as a “friend shootout” began with the criticisms that the White House chief made to the chancellor from Berlin that Germany is far behind meeting the target that member states should contribute to 2% of Gross Domestic Production for the alliance.
“Der Spiegel” mentions the fact that Albania was the only country praised by Trump in terms of progress towards meeting the objective. However, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama approached Chancellor Merkel during the breaks of the meeting of the 29 leaders present. He asked not to create the impression that Albania has become somewhat Trump model student – comments “Der Spiegel”.
However, the summit’s end was positive, as all the leaders present fulfilled Trump’s bid to engage in meeting the 2% target within 2024./tvklan.al
