{"id":118486,"date":"2021-04-14T09:33:38","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T01:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=118486"},"modified":"2021-04-14T09:33:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T01:33:40","slug":"us-defence-secretary-austin-in-germany-to-help-settle-defence-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=118486","title":{"rendered":"US Defence Secretary Austin in Germany to help settle defence ties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/africa\/US-Defence-Secretary-Austin-in-Germany-to-help-settle-defence-ties-1231810?gallery=1\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/159\/15995739.295.jpg\" alt=\"US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><em>US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BERLIN, April 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is meeting his counterpart Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in Berlin, with the aim of settling defence ties after a tumultuous four years under the previous US administration.<br><br>Former US president Donald Trump repeatedly criticized Germany for not spending enough on defence, and late in his term announced the withdrawal of thousands of US troops from the country.<br><br>President Joe Biden&#8217;s policies have changed little from Trump&#8217;s, however, with the US still demanding that NATO countries spend 2 per cent of their gross national product (GDP) on defence. Germany in 2020 spent 1.56 per cent on defence, but has promised to increase it.<br><br>A key sticking point likely to arise in Tuesday&#8217;s discussions is the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a megaproject that also has security implications.<br>Washington believes the undersea gas pipeline between Russia and Germany will make Germany &#8211; and Europe &#8211; too dependent on Russian energy. The pipeline is almost complete, and the German government has refused to call a halt to the scheme.<br><br>Germany and Washington are also looking to find a common position on international troops in Afghanistan. Berlin wants to make the withdrawal of troops dependent on the progress in peace negotiations between Taliban militants and the Afghan government &#8211; but it is not clear whether the US will agree to this.<br><br>After meeting Kramp-Karrenbauer, Austin is due to visit US troops in Stuttgart. He will continue his European trip with talks in Brussels. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin BERLIN, April 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is meeting his counterpart Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in Berlin, with the aim of settling defence ties after a tumultuous four years under the previous US administration. Former US president Donald Trump repeatedly criticized Germany for not spending enough on defence, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":118488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118486"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/118488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}