(CNSNews.com) – It was “inappropriate” for President-elect Donald Trump to wade into another country’s politics by criticizing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s migrant and refugee policies, Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday.
“I thought, frankly, it was inappropriate for a president-elect of the United States to be stepping into the politics of other countries in a quite direct manner,” Kerry told CNN.
He noted that Trump will be responsible for the relationship with Germany with effect from Friday.
“I think we have to be very careful about suggesting that one of the strongest leaders in Europe – and most important players with respect to where we are heading -- made one mistake or another. I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to be commenting on that.”
In an interview with the mass-circulation German tabloid Bild, Trump called Merkel’s controversial “open door” policy for migrants and refugees a “very catastrophic mistake.”
Germany admitted nearly 890,000 migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa in 2015, an issue widely seen to have boosted support for the populist right wing ahead of elections scheduled for this year.
Arrival numbers dropped significantly in 2016, to around 280,000. The reduction has been attributed in part to an agreement between the European Union and Turkey that helped to stem the flow of mostly Syrian refugees, as well as other factors such as the closure of borders in Austria and the Balkans.
In reply to a question, Kerry rejected Trump’s description of Merkel’s migrant/refugee policy as “catastrophic.”
“I don’t think it amounts to that characterization at all,” he said.
“It has had some problems, but everybody’s had some problems with this challenge of how do you respond appropriately as a big nation, as a great nation, as the West, where our values and our principles are important with respect to caring for people who are in distress, who are put into refugee status,” Kerry continued.
“We have a great history of that. And we’ve seen what happens when we don’t do that, and so I think she [Merkel] has been extraordinarily courageous. I think she’s been extraordinarily important to Europe as an entity.”
Kerry added that the Obama administration had “valued her leadership enormously.”
In other response to Trump’s comments, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said the influx of migrants seeking asylum in Europe was partly the result of U.S. policies in the Middle East, particularly the Iraq war.
“There is a link between America’s flawed interventionist policy, especially the Iraq war, and the refugee crisis, that’s why my advice would be that we shouldn’t tell each other what we have done right or wrong, but that we look into establishing peace in that region and do everything to make sure people can find a home there again,” the Guardian quoted Gabriel as telling Bild in a video interview.
Gabriel is head of the liberal Social Democratic Party (SPD), the second-largest party in parliament and a member of Merkel’s coalition.