Bush Greets Frau Chancellor

Jan. 13, 2005 — -- President Bush greeted Germany's new Chancellor Angela Merkel today on her first official visit to Washington. They have a lot of work to do to improve relations between the United States and Germany. Merkel has made the effort a priority, and now the United States and Germany have a new challenge to face together: Iran.

In her first comments after arriving in Washington, Merkel said that Iran "has crossed the red line" by resuming its nuclear activity, and that the United States and Europe must continue to face down Iran together. With his counterparts from Britain and France, German Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier issued a statement yesterday after a meeting in Berlin, saying that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program had reached "a dead end" and that the issue should be referred to the U.N. Security Council.

There are other topics on Merkel's agenda, which may not be as dramatic as the Iran issue but may be upsetting to her hosts. Before leaving for Washington, she sharply criticized the United States for the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and indirectly called for the camp to be closed.

"An institution like Guantanamo should not continue to exist long-term," she said in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine. That comment was something even her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, who was reelected once because of his anti-Bush stance, would have thought twice about before saying. The word in Berlin was that Guantanamo would be brought up with Bush in order to discuss the differences between America and Europe in the fight against terror.

Merkel is not coming to Washington empty-handed. To improve ties with the United States, she has pledged $10 million to the Iraq Reconstruction Fund. She's also offering a dramatic increase in the number of Iraqi police officers trained by German security experts.

So what is Merkel's real goal? Is she going to criticize the Bush administration on Guantanamo and then spring a sugar-coated offer to help out in Iraq? Some analysts see this as evidence of her foreign policy savvy and as a good example of her unique approach to getting things done. Polls show her no-nonsense attitude has already earned her the respect of about 60 percent of Germans --