Foreign policy of the Angela Merkel government

[7] In 2016 Merkel was described by The New York Times as "the Liberal West's Last Defender"[8] and by Timothy Garton Ash as "the leader of the free world.

In 2013, after the revelation that the Brazilian Presidency and the German Chancellery were spied on by the United States intelligence service, Angela Merkel moved closer to Brazil.

During the 2014 World Cup, she traveled to Brazil to watch games alongside President Dilma Rousseff, and in August of the following year she returned to the country with a strong delegation of seven ministers and five secretaries of state.

[11] On 25 September 2007, Merkel met the 14th Dalai Lama for "private and informal talks" in the Chancellery in Berlin amid protest from China.

The Council, co-chaired by an EU and a US official, aims at removing barriers to trade in a further integrated transatlantic free-trade area.

[22][23] Upon the election of Donald Trump Merkel said that "Germany and America are tied by values of democracy, freedom and respect for the law and human dignity, independent of origin, skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views.

[27] At an electoral rally in Munich, she said that "We have to know that we must fight for our future on our own, for our destiny as Europeans",[28] which has been interpreted as an unprecedented shift in the German-American transatlantic relationship.

[30] In June 2017, Merkel criticized the draft of new U.S. sanctions against Russia that target EU–Russia energy projects, including Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

[35] In 2016, German opposition parties criticized Germany's defense plan with Saudi Arabia, which has been waging war in Yemen against the Houthis and has been accused of massive human rights violations.

[36][37] In a TV debate in September 2017, Merkel and her then challenger Martin Schulz both said that they would seek an end to Turkey's membership talks with the European Union.

"[39] Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a "Joint Declaration" emphasising the Indo-German strategic partnership in 2006.

A similar Declaration, signed during Merkel's visit to India in 2007, noted the substantial progress made in Indo-German relations and set ambitious goals for their development in the future.

"[40] Germany was affected by the European migrant crisis in 2015 as it became the final destination of choice for many asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East entering the EU.

Merkel made a highly controversial statement in August 2015: "We will manage it," taken to mean Germany would be able to handle large numbers successfully.

When Merkel's declaration was made, hundreds of thousands of refugees already were on the trek, and it was just a matter of pragmatic, realist and humanitarian policy not to close national borders.