The Berlin Stonewall

摘要

Soon after Angela Merkel became Germany's chancellor in 2005, she met George Bush in Washington to open a "new chapter" in relations. Her predecessor, Gerhard Schroder, had been so stridently against the Iraq war that he began to look anti-American. Ms Merkel, by contrast, had backed the war. Germany may belong to "old Europe", as America once dismissed opponents of the war, but Ms Merkel, a child of communist East Germany, had the instincts of a new European. The easing of tensions was helped, too, by President Bush's efforts to repair transatlantic relations in his second term.rnYet frustration is creeping back in. On Russia, Iran and Afghanistan-trouble-spots that matter to both countries-Germany's position is annoying Washington. At the nato summit in Bucharest last April, Ms Merkel stood most visibly against American pressure to grant a Membership Action Plan-a road-map to join the alliance-to Ukraine and Georgia. This was a marked change from previous summits at which France habitually obstructed American proposals.