Durable German-American partnership

The governments in the USA and Germany will be changing at almost the same time. In the United States on 20 January, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as its 47th President and Germany is electing a new Bundestag on 23 February. The fact that the FDP withdrew from the previous coalition government means that Germany too will see a new government as a consequence of this election. Donald Trump frequently emphasises that he has German roots, and he is not alone: 12 per cent of the US population state that they are of “German” descent. Yet recent public debate regarding Donald Trump’s political plans and a possible revamp in German-American relations has tended to focus on potential conflict between the Alliance partners. Such as when Trump floated the idea that the allies should increase defence expenditure to five per cent of their GDP and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed this as unrealistic.

Such differences should not however deflect from the reality that there is significantly more uniting Germany and the USA rather than separating them – and NATO is a good example of this. Consideration of transatlantic relations in the aspects of politics, business and defence exemplifies the point.

Partners in international security

“75 years of NATO represents 75 years of security, stability and peace”, said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at its anniversary in July last year. And the next anniversary is due in 2025: May marks Germany commemorating its 70th anniversary of being invited to join the Alliance. Germany has for seven decades been a reliable partner in the Alliance that is to a large extent sustained by the USA. 

Germany often even assumes executive responsibility within NATO. Examples of this include the airspace surveillance system in Estonia or Germany’s role since 2019 as “Framework Nation” of a multinational NATO task force in Lithuania. The central coordinating committee for military aid to Ukraine at government level met until recently in Ramstein, Germany; after the USA, Germany is the second most important supporter of Ukraine. The new “NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine” command in Wiesbaden, Hesse, also sees Germany in a lead position alongside the USA and in which among other things it is providing the second in command.

Uniting values, common policy

Reliable partnership is crucial in politics. Germany and the USA have for decades shared intense dialogue as part of the G7 grouping of major democratic economic powers, irrespective of the governments on both sides of the Atlantic. After the US presidential election on 5 November 2024, Steven E. Sokol, President of the American Council on Germany, pronounced that: “Germany is and remains one of our closest allies and a steadfast security partner.”

Germany and the USA tend to collaborate closely in numerous international bodies and thus shore up the rule-based multilateral order. Both democracies are united by their core set of shared values, which among other things forms the basis for their joint sanctions in response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine which violates international law. This unifying understanding of rules is also reflected in economic policy, such as via the G7’s critical stance towards China’s subsidy policy and its distortion of global competition.

The combined economic power of two strong partners

Germany is one of the USA’s largest trading partners in Europe. The stability of economic relations was demonstrated during Trump’s first term in office from 2017 to 2021, when both German imports of American products and exports to the USA steadily grew, apart from a dip in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Germany is also the third-largest source of direct foreign investment into the United States and the largest overseas investor in America in the pioneering field of renewable energies. The bond between transatlantic partners is also forged by the jobs created in each other’s country. Almost a million people in the USA are employed at subsidiaries of German companies – in a wide variety of regions. German companies are in each case the largest overseas employers in Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, North and South Carolina and Puerto Rico.

These figures substantiate the robust nature of the German-American relationship. Economic relations even clearly weathered the protective tariffs imposed on certain product groups during the first term of Donald Trump’s presidency. A clear sign that the key to successful development in both Germany and the USA lies in cooperation between the two countries that have been on friendly terms for many decades.