The last summit for Merkel

The last summit for Merkel

For the first time, Joseph Biden is participating as the U.S. President.

"We can do it. 'Wir schaffen das!', I think is the phrase. Clearly!", said Boris Johnson in 2019, alluding to the chancellor's saying from 2015.

The eccentric Briton was then the first guest in his capacity as prime minister as a guest of the government in Berlin, where he was welcomed by Angela Merkel.

Today the situation is reversed. Among her colleagues from the G7, Angela Merkel is attending the meeting for the last time. And he, the Briton, is now the host of the G7 summit in Cornwall, which is attended by the "long-term" German chancellor.

"I am one of those who can express very clearly what they want," Merkel said at one of the numerous G7 summits. In the meantime, everyone understood that or they had to accept it with great difficulty. This is her 15th G7 Summit.

German chancellor saw a lot and survived politically: Berlusconi, Sarkozy and Trump. Everyone come - and gone. She was the only one left.

Chancellor as "confidence building benchmark"

The Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, once said: "The Chancellor is a benchmark for building trust, giving the Chancellor her sincere compliment. "Predictable. Reliable!”, and that doesn’t apply to every participant in important conferences.

"I have never seen a head of government who constantly questions the decisions of his predecessor," Chancellor Merkel said at the 2008 G8 summit in Japan. But everything has changed since Trump. Ischinger calls it a turning point in German-American relations, because until Trump's arrival, it didn't matter to Germany whether there was a Democrat or a Republican in the White House.

"They were all our friends. But that is no longer the case," Ischinger said at the time.

Europe and Germany must now help Biden so that America can help the world again. Ischinger expresses this in a more dramatic way and says that Biden will lose in the next elections if he cannot explain to the Americans why his policy based on cooperation is good for them.

"We've been waiting a long time for this"

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas points out that with Biden, the renewal of something that was once taken for granted in international relations will begin.

"To be honest, we've been waiting a long time for this. There have been incidents in the last few years under the previous US administration that have raised concerns that the international order will suffer lasting damage."

By the way, Ischinger has the answer from the USA, Japan, Canada, Italy, Great Britain and France, who may be wondering what the fate of the G7 is without Angela Merkel - also considering the upcoming elections in Germany. That answer reads: "Don't be afraid of Germany. We remain in continuity. What is written in small letters can change, but what is written in large letters remains. And that is good news."