Merkel's successor says Russia will destabilise Europe

She sees foreign policy divided into some axis: The European axis, which Germany has great interest in seeing with enough power to act. The other axis is trans-Atlantic, Europe-American axis, which for Carrenbauer seems difficult at the moment because of disagreements between the US and the EU, especially the US-German.

“The most important challenge for us is to preserve the alliance and friendship, especially with the signs being seen, when polls show that many Germans have more trust in the presidents of China or Russia than in the US”, she says.

Journalists Andreas Rinke and Martin Bilalcki cited the case when Carrenbauer said both Trump and Putin are difficult to dialogue with. But she insists that this declaration does not equal the two leaders.

Despite the debates, I'm closer to the United States, so it's not a matter of equalizing. What I've been meaning to say is that in the current climate, the two countries present major challenges for co-operation”, she added. “Russia is much closer to Germany geographically, but even more problematic, as Russia's plans are to destabilise Europe. Russia wants to see weaker neighbours in order to increase its power. These conflict with the interests of Europe and Germany. China, which has a very severe regime, also has values that differ from ours and that they try to spread around the world”, the Express broadcasts.