Relations between Germany and the US plunged to a new low over American spying tactics. [Reuters]
President Barack Obama told a German television in an
interview that he would not allow America's massive communications
surveillance capability to damage relations with Germany and other close
US allies.
Obama made the pledge in a rare interview with Germany's ZDF
television on Saturday, in an apparent step to repair the damage to
America's relations with Germany, after reports of extensive US spying
on European citizens, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Merkel accused the US of a grave breach of trust after reports about
her cellphone being tapped by the US National Security Agency emerged in
October. Her government has been pressing for a "no spying" agreement
with Washington since then.
Her centre-right party's foreign policy spokesman, Philipp
Missfelder, told reporters on Thursday that revelations about US spying
in Germany had plunged relations with Washington to their lowest level
in more than a decade.
Snowden leaks
During the 16-minute interview, Obama acknowledged the anger in
Germany and elsewhere ignited by spy revelations, after the leak of
documents obtained by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden to news media.
Obama said it would take time to restore trust, although he defended
US surveillance as necessary to protect the US and its allies, including
Germany.
"Our intelligence agencies, like German intelligence agencies, and
every intelligence agency out there, will continue to be interested in
the government intentions of countries around the world. That's not
going to change," he said.
"And there is no point in having an intelligence service if you are restricted to the things that you can read in the New York Times or Der Spiegel.
"The truth of the matter is that by definition the job of
intelligence is to find out: Well, what are folks thinking? What are
they doing?", he said.
Obama said that before the revelations he had forged a close working
relationship with Merkel, and that he could not allow US surveillance
operations to damage that trust.
"As long as I am president of the United States, the German
chancellor need not worry about that," Obama said, according to a
simultaneous German translation as he spoke.
New limits on data collection
The interview was broadcast a day after Obama ordered new limits on
the way US intelligence accesses phone records from hundreds of millions
of Americans, and moved toward eventually stripping the massive data
collection from the government's hands.
Obama also promised to curb spying on allied leaders and to extend
some privacy protections to foreign citizens - demands that have special
resonance in Germany because of its bitter memories of massive domestic
surveillance by the Nazis and East German Communists.
German interviewer Claus Kleber told the president that initial
reaction in Germany toward his speech had been "skeptical, careful, many
even disappointed" including those who are "normally pro-American".
Following the Friday speech, government spokesman Steffen Seibert
said Germany would wait and see what happens before making a final
judgment on Obama's intelligence reforms.
Germany hosts more than 30,000 American troops, mostly in the south and west.
The German news weekly Der Spiegel, citing Snowden
documents, has reported that US diplomatic and military facilities in
Germany have been used for surveillance operations in the past.