Germany’s Prime Minister Angela Merkel has in recent months been running a shuttle diplomacy on brexit. Now Prime Minister Erna Solberg will get the opportunity to present her case.
Brexit is likely to be the main course on the menu when Angela Merkel welcomes Erna Solberg to a working lunch in Berlin on Tuesday.
As Europe’s largest economy Germany will have great influence over the direction of the negotiations that are now in wait with the British.
– It is important to hear how they think that there might be solutions in the future, and how they think this will affect EU cooperation, says Solberg to news agency NTB.
Defence Cooperation
Solberg cites European defense cooperation as one of the questions she would like to discuss with Merkel.
Britain has long been a brake for closer defense cooperation within the EU, and Germany is one of several countries that believe the EU should take this opportunity to reinforce cooperation now that the British shall leave.
A Norwegian concern is that resources will be lubricated thinly, and that the EU and NATO should double up.
– There are limited resources for all of us. We have quite a few forces which are allocated in various efforts under the NATO umbrella.
For all NATO countries it is limited in what they could be decided in an EU context, explains Solberg.
– I often think that the ideas are a bit larger than the practical ability to ask capacities, she warns.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
