German Spy Scandal Tests Merkel’s Partnership With U.S.
By Patrick Donahue Jul 8, 2014 9:13 AM ET
Working with the U.S. on Ukraine and trade just got harder for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
With a rift over American spying reopened, Merkel’s attempts to persuade a skeptical public will be more difficult as the U.S. seeks her backing for a trade accord with the European Union and further sanctions on Russia for its involvement in Ukraine.
Nine months after reports that U.S. intelligence tapped Merkel’s mobile phone, an alleged American double agent in German intelligence is stoking more mistrust as the EU and U.S. seek to create the world’s biggest free-trade area.
“It makes the conversation a little more difficult,” Mujtaba Rahman, a political analyst at Eurasia Group in London, said in an interview. “Certainly between Merkel and Obama, certainly at a time when the U.S. is looking for German support for a number of high-level political issues.”
On a trip to China, Merkel said yesterday that last week’s arrest of the 31-year-old German for espionage is a “serious case” that violates “trusting cooperation” between allies, if newspaper reports that he sold secrets to the U.S. are true.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-08/merkel-tested-as-u-s-partner-by-spy-uproar-in-germany.html
