Following the electoral success of former New York property tycoon Donald Trump, the Chancellor of Germany has congratulated the soon-to-be US President.
Close Cooperation
In a statement from the Bundestag, Angela merkel said:
"Germany and America are connected by values of democracy, freedom and respect for the law and dignity of man, independent of origin, skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or political views.
"I offer the next President of the United States close cooperation on the basis of these values. The partnership with the United States is and remains a foundation of German foreign policy.
"On the basis of these values, I am offering to work closely with the future President of the United States, Donald trump."
It does however, remain to be seen how close both countries will cooperate in the years to come. This is due to then presidential candidate Donald Trump earlier this year describing Merkel's immigration policy of welcoming one million refugees to Germany as a "total disaster".
Merkel's Deputy Shares His Views
Just as The Washington Post reports, Angela Merkel's Deputy Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, was much more to the point in his reaction:
"Trump is the trailblazer of a new authoritarian and chauvinist international movement...they want a rollback to the bad old times in which women belonged by the stove or in bed, with gays in jail and unions at best at the side table.
And he who doesn't keep his mouth shut gets publicly bashed."
Having just beaten Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton 279 votes to 228 in this year's US presidential election, a wide range of world leaders -from Russian President Vladimir Putin to UK Prime Minister Theresa May- have expressed that the will of the American people must be respected.
As for Mr Trump, he too will be expected to respect the intricacies of foreign diplomacy moving forward. This is especially true with German Chancellor Angela Merkel; who has been commonly described by journalists as the "most powerful leader in Europe".
