BERLIN — New German Chancellor Angela Merkel is moving quickly to improve relations with the United States that were damaged over the Iraq war and by Berlin's increasingly independent and sometimes erratic voice in world affairs.
Merkel has been in office less than two weeks, but she has sent strong signals to Washington that she values transatlantic ties more than her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, did. She will not give President Bush what he wants most -- German troops in Iraq -- but Merkel is not inclined toward the Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis honed by Schroeder's Social Democratic government.
"Let the battles of the past rest," Merkel, a conservative, said of U.S.-German ties during her first speech to Parliament this week. "The battles are fought out. Our aim for the future is: With all our strength the new government will foster a close, truthful, open and trustful relationship within the transatlantic partnership."
Raised in communist East Germany, Merkel appreciates the U.S. role in building democracy in this once-divided nation. But she is pragmatic and candid, quietly informing Washington that her government is agitated that CIA planes reportedly carrying terrorism suspects briefly stopped at U.S. bases in Germany. The matter is expected to be raised again Tuesday when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets Merkel in Berlin.
The chancellor's demeanor and diplomatic nuance during a trip to Washington next month for talks with President Bush will be closely watched. Analysts say Merkel cannot appear too willing to appease. Such a perception could upset her fragile coalition government, if leftist Social Democrats accuse her of reversing Germany's adamant stance of opposing U.S. policies on Iraq and the treatment of prisoners.
"Merkel understands Bush is in huge trouble," said Jan-Friedrich Kallmorgen, an analyst with the German Council on Foreign Relations. "But she can't be seen as conceding. She will not send soldiers to Iraq, but she may offer to continue German training of Iraq security forces here and in the United Arab Emirates. This will give the Americans at least some relief on the Iraq front."
Eckart von Klaeden, foreign policy spokesman for Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, said: "In the short term there will not be a great substantive change in German policy toward the U.S. But the mood and the atmosphere will change, and those are just as important to foreign policy."
