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Trust is so central to maintaining a healthy alliance that the alleged U.S. policy of monitoring the phone conversations or phone records of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French citizens should be curtailed.
If Washington undermines its own leadership or that of its allies, the collective ability of the West to combat terrorism will be compromised.
Since the 1963 Elysée Treaty was signed, France and Germany have been the anchors for Europe’s democracies. Without these two leading economies, the European Union could not function and a peaceful Europe would be all but impossible to maintain.
Their membership in NATO is vital on both sides of the Atlantic. They have provided troops to the U.S.-led international security forces in Afghanistan. Even when they differ, they work together, as in the case of France’s intervention in Mali, when Germany ultimately offered the use of its cargo planes.