Chancellor Angela Merkel has visited Sweden ahead of an EU summit later this week in Malta. The focus of the talks was on refugees but Merkel also spoke strongly on finance and trade in response to comments from the US.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel was met Tuesday morning by Mikael Damberg, Sweden's minister for enterprise and innovation, on her arrival at Stockholm's Arlanda airport.
The German Chancellor's first official stop was the royal palace, where she met with King Carl XVI Gustaf and German-born Queen Silvia.
International questions
Merkel later held talks with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. Afterwards she responded to a question in relation to a comment from one of US President Donald Trump's advisers. Peter Navarro, the head of the White House National Trade Council, had claimed that Germany was bolstering its exports with what he called a "grossly undervalued" euro.
"We won’t exercise any influence over the European Central Bank, so I can’t and I don’t want to change the situation as it is now," Merkel said. "Beyond that, we strive to trade on the global market with competitive products in fair trade with all others."
Merkel said the independence of monetary policy was a central pillar of its approach.
"As far as the euro and its valuation goes, Germany is a country that has always called for the European Central Bank to do its work independently, just as the Bundesbank did when there was no euro," Merkel said.
On another issue, Lofven and Merkel described the US decision to ban travel for citizens of certain countries, and to block refugees entering the US as "regrettable." They expressed concern that it could be "counterproductive."
"The fight against terrorism does not justify singling out a certain population group," Merkel said after the talks in Stockholm.
EU summit
Ahead of the EU summit in Malta on Friday, Merkel underlined that it's not enough to talk. "We must also act," she said.
"We will be determined to carry the work forward as it is not enough to speak, but it must also be followed by deeds," Merkel said.
The Chancellor noted that Malta was engaged in finding solutions for migrants fleeing from Libya to Italy. She said it was necessary to see "how we can contribute to stabilizing the situation in Libya."
Germany and Sweden plan close cooperation on a new European asylum system.
"We want to make sure that people don't have to flee their countries in the first place," Lofven said after the meeting with the German chancellor, whose itinerary next takes her on a brief visit to Ankara.
Royal visit: Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden in Germany
The Swedish royal couple is on a state visit in Germany. Queen Silvia of Sweden comes regularly on her own to visit her family in Heidelberg. Now she has the King at her side.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H.-T. Dahlskog
The little prince
Crown Prince Carl Gustaf smiles at the camera shortly before his seventh birthday. His birth on April 30, 1946, was announced with a salute of 84 naval guns, leading his mother, the then Crown Princess Sibylla, to fall unconscious. His father died in a plane accident nine months later. The boy became Crown Prince at the age of four, after his great-grandfather died. He was crowned King in 1973.
Image: Imago/Zuma/Keystone
Queen with an Olympian past
The Queen was born as Sylvia Sommerlath on December 23, 1943, in Heidelberg. Her father was a member of the Nazi party and fled to Brazil after World War II. Silvia stayed in Germany and finished high school in Dusseldorf. Here, she shows tickets to the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972. She was a hostess and interpreter for the event, and that's where she met Carl XVI Gustaf.
Image: Imago stock&people
Marrying into royalty
Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath married in the summer of 1976. The people of Sweden were thrilled and didn't mind Silvia's lack of royal roots. Silvia was already the third commoner to become Queen of Sweden. Along with her many ceremonial duties, she is involved in charities for disadvantaged children.
Image: picture-alliance/Scanpix Denmark
First state visit to Germany
In 1973, Carl XVI Gustaf was crowned King of Sweden. Six years later, in March 1979, King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife came for a state visit to West Germany for the first time. Along with the former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, the majesties also met Bavarian Prime Minister Franz-Josef Strauss (pictured right).
Image: imago/ZUMA/Keystone
Equality in royal succession
A new law was established in 1980 to allow their first-born daughter to become Queen one day, placing Crown Princess Victoria ahead of her younger brother in the succession. She married her personal athletic trainer, Daniel Westling, who's holding their baby daughter, Princess Estelle, in this picture from 2012. They now have two children.
Image: picture alliance/IBL Schweden/K. Tornblom
A storybook family
Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf had three children: Victoria, Madeleine and Carl Philip, pictured here in 1995 on Victoria's 18th birthday. The royal family is extremely popular in Sweden, contributing to the Swedes' acceptance of monarchy in the country.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H.-T. Dahlskog
Greetings from a Berlin balcony
If their first state visit took place during the Cold War in a divided Germany, the Swedish royal couple set foot in a completely different Germany on their second official visit in 1993. On April 28, they waved from the balcony of Berlin's town hall, the Rotes Rathaus.
Image: picture-alliance/P. Grimm
Support for Angela Merkel
Sweden and Germany have shouldered a large part of Europe's burden in the refugee crisis. Shortly before this third state visit, Queen Silvia declared her support for Angela Merkel's refugee policies. She recalled the long tradition of immigration established in her country.