By Andrea Barbara Schuessler
“I think the U.S. and Europe are the strongest partners but we all have to do our share and not blame each other for different things but to work together in what is the world’s not only strongest military alliance but one of democracies, which is also a very important part of it,” Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and Chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group said on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at the Transatlantic Forum of the Aspen Institute in Berlin Nov.6.
“I worry that we’re not seeing the things that are going on, that we’re missing an opportunity in this very changeable time to develop institutional structures where we do our share, where we look at something new,” she added.
The new wall is disinformation, Albright says
“The new wall is disinformation, the militarization of disinformation, and I think that’s one that we have to figure out how to deal with together and it’s not anything that one country can do by itself,” Albright said in Berlin.
“I really do think what we need to brace ourselves for are increasingly complicated relationships between the United States and Europe,” she said.
“I do think the U.S. has a role to play but I think Europe does, too, and we have made a mistake in not cherishing that relationship and working on it because things change,” Albright said.
We are an Atlantic and a Pacific power, Albright says
“We are an Atlantic and a Pacific power and have responsibilities in both places but our relationship with Europe is a key one, but a relationship is a two way thing and the Europeans need to help, too,” she said.
We need a candidate and a president who can bring people together, Albright says
“I think it’s time for a very committed and thoughtful president who is able to find common answers,” former U.S. Secretary of State Albright said about the next U.S. President.
“We need a candidate and a president who can bring people together”, she added.
“Trump is not the cause of everything, he is the result of things that were a problem and we need to deal with those and that’s what has to be recognized,” she said in Berlin.
“But I do think the issues out there are unbelievably difficult and more difficult than usual because I think we have had a time that I think had been disastrous for America and the world, frankly,” she added.
The transatlantic relationship has lost its naturalness, former German foreign minister Fischer says
"The transatlantic relationship has lost its naturalness. That is why we need to work on both sides of the Atlantic to re-stabilize the dysfunctional relationship,” Germany’s former foreign minister Joschka Fischer said at the Transatlantic Business Conference of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany in Berlin Nov.7.