Maas demands 'minimum degree of reliability' from Trump
July 18, 2018
Germany's top diplomat said international policymaking is burdensome when the US president's words have a "half-life of 24 hours." Maas said he was unconvinced by Trump's attempts to backtrack on his Helsinki remarks.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday spoke out over US President Donald Trump's attempts to backtrack on comments he made during Monday's Helsinki press conference with Vladimir Putin.
Maas said Germany and other western allies demanded a "minimum degree of reliability" from Trump and his foreign policy.
"It is, quite simply, extremely difficult to craft policies when the information or facts have a half-life of 24 hours. This will not work," Berlin's top diplomat added after meeting with his Chilean counterpart, Roberto Ampuero.
"This also seems to be the unanimous opinion within the United States," he added.
Maas' criticism of Trump comes after the president on Tuesday backtracked on remarks he made during Monday's press conference with Putin. Standing next to the Russian president, Trump cast doubt over his country's intelligence agencies' assessment that Russia had meddled in the 2016 US presidential election. "I don't see any reason why it would be," the president said.
On Tuesday, Trump said he had reviewed the transcripts of his Helsinki statements and explained that he had misspoken. "I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't,'" Trump told White House reporters. "The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia,'" the president said.
Maas criticized the US president once again on Wednesday in an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland newspaper group.
Asked to assess Trump's reversal of remarks, Maas was quoted as saying: "This is apparently an attempt at damage limitation. It doesn't appear particularly convincing."
Germany's foreign minister went on to say he regretted that Trump didn't backtrack on his most recent criticisms of the European Union — which he described as a foe — shortly before setting off for Helsinki.
"Trump's European trip overall showed that his behavior is a big challenge for diplomacy," Maas said.
The weirdest moments of the Trump-Putin summit
Despite praising each other ahead of the meeting, the body language between the two leaders was anything but warm. Hillary Clinton's emails, awkward hugs and non-answers were the major takeaways from the summit.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/TASS/V. Sharifulin
Stiff body language
Although the US president had nothing but warm words for his Russian counterpart ahead of their meeting, their posture upon meeting was significantly more awkward. As they met for a brief photo call before closed-door talks, the two men avoided eye contact and seemed unsure of how best to approach one another, with Trump slouching in his seat and Putin remaining enigmatic.
Image: Reuters/K. Lamarque
Trump questions US intelligence services
"They said they think it's Russia; I have President Putin, he just said it's not Russia," said Trump, on assurances from US intelligence agenices that the Russian government meddled in the 2016 presidential elections. This came mere seconds after Putin admitted in a press conference that he had be hoping for him to win over rival Hillary Clinton.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Smialowski
Reporter pulled for protest
A reporter for the progressive US publication "The Nation" was forcibly removed from the presidents' joint press conference, apparently for holding a sign that seemed to read "Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty."
After giving a series of rambling answers to questions about Syria and Russian hacking, Trump was asked why he would trust President Putin's assurances over his own intelligence services. He abruptly changed the subject to Hillary Clinton. "Where are those servers?" he asked. "Where are Hillary Clinton's emails?"
Image: Reuters/G. Dukor
Power posturing
President Putin reacted aggressively to questions from US reporters from the new agencies Reuters and the Associated Press. "Can you name a single fact?" he asked. He also swerved around a US reporter's question as to whether he directed government agents to interfere in American politics.
Image: Reuters/Lehtikuva/A. Aimo-Koivisto
In your court
"The ball's in your court," said Putin with an air of forced joviality as he presented Trump with a gift to mark their meeting. Trump had already congratulated the Russian president on "one of the best ever" World Cup tournaments. After he was handed the soccer ball, Trump appeared to surprise onlookers by tossing it into the crowd, where it was given to his wife Melania Trump.
Image: picture-alliance/newscom/D. Silpa
Half-hearted hug
The two men again appeared ill at ease with one another at the end of the press conference, a stark contrast to their vows to work towards stronger ties. Both leaders were uncomfortably prompted to deny the existence of a "dossier" of compromising material collected by Russian agents during Trump's visits to the country before he was president.
