NATO summit in the Hague: Merz calls for sharper sanctions against Russia

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) recalled US President Donald Trump at a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit for sharper sanctions against Russia. “There will be no military solution to this conflict. We have to increase the economic pressure on Moscow,” he said at the end of the NATO summit in the Hague in front of journalists.

Trump still hopes to end the Russian attack war on February 24, 2022 by concessions to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. One of them is that Ukraine should give up a NATO accession for the ceasefire for the time being.

Merz: 18th EU sanctions alone will not be enough

Merz said he had “presented our urgent wish in the conversation in the face of the situation in Ukraine, but now on the American side to get further sanctions towards Russia”. The European Union (EU) will finally launch its 18th sanction package against Russia at the summit in Brussels on Thursday. “But that alone will not be enough. We also need a stronger participation of the United States of America in such sanctions.”

Chancellor to Trump: Put the sanctions planned in the US Senate

The Chancellor said that a corresponding sanction package may be in the US Senate in the next few days. He encouraged Trump to put this package into force, “so that America also exerts higher pressure on Moscow, so that Moscow returns to the negotiating table”. Trump’s corresponding opinion -forming process has not yet been completed, said the Chancellor: “I have the impression that he is intensively thinking about what he can do.”

He had once again said Trump that it is now above all in his hand to give a corresponding help, “said Merz. This could use the momentum according to the US attacks on Iran, “not militarily but commercial”. The EU had almost exhausted its sanction options. What is being prepared in the US Senate mainly affects China and India. “These are sanctions that can only impose the United States of America, not the European Union.”