U.S. and Germany’s New Beginning

No one can say any longer that Barack Obama and Angela Merkel cannot get along. But the American President is overwhelming the Chancellor with extravagant compliments to clear up any doubts. Now the two leaders are forming a constructive working relationship.

Angela Merkel and Barack Obama have used three occasions to make the world believe that they are able to find common ground. After Friday’s press conference in the White House’s East Room, no journalist was going to risk reporting anything negative about the relationship between the two leaders. When the host complimented the German Chancellor for her intelligence and practicality, it was obvious that Obama holds Merkel in high regard.

Merkel was probably pleased when she went back to Berlin. Anyone campaigning for office in Germany should not create the impression that they are unable to get along with Barack Obama. But the President, likewise, cannot have a tense relationship with Europe’s biggest economic power. With Merkel at his side, it will be easier to condemn the Iranian mullahs who are now oppressing their own people. America does not want to be the only global sheriff to be charged by Iran’s leadership with interference in that country’s internal affairs. The United States needs partners to save the structure of dialogue regarding the current crisis of the Iranian nuclear program.

The presence of the Chancellor was also domestically useful for Obama. On the day the U.S. House of Representatives voted on the climate change bill, it did not hurt to have Merkel congratulate Obama on this “sea change” in the American approach to climate policy. But the 1200 page draft that will appear in front of the Senate and expand the bill was not mentioned.

Obama also held back on placing demands on the Germans. Instead of pressuring Germany for greater participation in Afghanistan, there was praise for the German forces in the northeastern region of the country and sympathy for the three German soldiers who were killed there last week. Even American criticism of German skepticism regarding the economic stimulus package has grown silent. Instead, Washington now accepts the German view that the indirect effect of the German welfare state must be taken into account in Berlin’s economic stimulus policy. Obama also admitted that he understands that one must first check with the government in Berlin before Germany accepts detainees from Guantánamo.

This sounds like the outcome of an objective exchange of opinions. It also sounds as if each side has accepted an appreciation for the political limitations of the other side and, thus, developed personal respect for the other. The aloof and wry style of the Chancellor may be as strange to the President, as Obama’s propensity for excessive compliments is to her. Obama nodded thoughtfully as she spoke of the West’s duty to investigate the whereabouts of every single victim of repression by the Iranian government. Due to her past in the former East Germany, she knows, “how important it is that there are people who care about those left behind.”

Merkel took pains to draw the Obama phenomenon closer to her style. The staging of friendships, as with French President Nicholas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, mean little to her. The businesslike East German refused to allow herself to catch the Obama superstar virus. Instead, she studies Obama’s autobiography and tries to imagine him as the son of an African man and a white American woman, who was born in Hawaii, raised in Indonesia, and learned early on to view the world not only from the American perspective but also from a global perspective.

This may not be the beginning of a wonderful friendship, but it is enough to determine that Germany and the United States, in spite of all their differences, do share similar values. In many respects, their common strategic interests are derived from these values. For a long time, there has been very little fundamental consensus in the trans-Atlantic relationship. This situation has improved since Obama’s inauguration, even though current approaches still differ somewhat. But when two leaders meet, they should be able to discuss common interests and not be questioning who has a warm place in his or her heart for the other.