Germany Is Ready to Offer America a New Deal
Rejuvenating the long and tortuous friendship with Washington would be good for both countries, and the world.
Kramp-Karrenbauer and Maas, with an offer to their American friends.
Photographer: Stephanie Loos - Pool/Getty Images Europe
It’s not every day that the defense minister of a major NATO ally proposes a new deal in transatlantic relations by repeatedly and emotionally avowing her “gratitude” toward the U.S. But that’s what Germany’s Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer did last week.
Even in the final throes of a presidential election, the cognoscenti in Washington on both sides of the aisle would be fools not to read between Kramp-Karrenbauer’s lines and consider her offer. It’s no secret that Berlin’s policy makers are praying for Joe Biden to defeat Donald Trump. But Kramp-Karrenbauer explicitly makes her pitch to any future resident of the White House: Democrat or Republican.