US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the German capital, Berlin, on Friday for talks that will take place against the background of commemorations for the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Pompeo has discussed security issues and trans-Atlantic relations with German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. Their meeting comes a day after Kramp-Karrenbauer called for Germany to play a much more active military role in the world. Since World War II, Germany has previously pursued, and been held to, a policy of military restraint in reaction to the aggressive expansionism of the Nazi era. Kramp-Karrenbauer has been supportive of US demands for Germany to increase military spending, with US President Donald Trump frequently chastizing Berlin for not doing enough as a NATO member. Criticism of China, Russia During a later speech given near Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate, Pompeo continued in the vein of his recent criticisms of China, saying the country had suppressed people with tactics that would have been “horrifyingly familiar” to residents of former communist East Germany. Pompeo also criticized Russia as a country that “invades its neighbors and slays political opponents.” He then called for Western unity in the face of the threat posed by “unfree… Read full this story
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