Merkel and Obama meeting in Washington
“Angela Merkel” and “Barack Obama” gathered in Washington to attend a ceremony on the occasion of the publication of the memoirs of the former German chancellor in the United States. They were close political allies when both were in power.
According to Isna, Merkel established a close relationship with Obama during his eight years in the White House. Obama’s last foreign trip as US president in 2016 included a stop in Berlin to join his German counterpart as he prepared for then-President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.
During Monday’s ceremony, Merkel and Obama discussed German reunification, the 2008 global financial crisis, climate change and immigration, in a discussion that drew cheers and scattered laughter from the crowd of about 3,000 people at the Washington venue.
2 leaders showed a friendly and simple relationship. Obama asked Merkel questions in English and she answered in German. Obama told the audience that Merkel’s English is excellent, but the trained researcher is a very thorough person who wants to speak in her mother tongue. Merkel later quipped that Obama, who is a lawyer, is also very precise.
The two joked about Obama’s trip to Berlin as a presidential candidate in 2008, when Merkel refused the Obama team’s request to give a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Obama later said that the German chancellor at the time was concerned that he had lost his temper. “I was fine,” Obama said loudly.
Merkel and Obama did not discuss Trump, who defeated Democrat Kamala Harris in last month’s election. Merkel said she hoped the United States would finally elect a female president. In his book, “Freedom: A Memoir 1954-2021,” written before the Nov. 5 election, he expressed hope that Harris would win.
When Obama asked about the book’s title, Merkel said, “Freedom was something I was always looking for in the first part of my life. Some people consider freedom as freedom from something, freedom from responsibilities. “My understanding of freedom is that we have the power to do something.”
Merkel’s legacy has faced criticism since she stepped down after 16 years in office, and Obama, while still popular with Democrats, was unable to beat Harris or Secretary Hillary Clinton. Former US Secretary of State who lost to Trump in 2016.
Obama said Germany’s reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall has lessons for an increasingly divided United States.
The former president of the United States said, “If you can literally be separated and divided by a wall for decades and still figure out how to come together as one identity in one country and thrive, then hopefully the United States America can also do this.”
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