Germany’s Scholz says a joint Ukraine approach can be found with Trump

FRANKFURT – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is confident he will be able to agree with US President-elect Donald Trump on a joint strategy for Ukraine after speaking to him on the phone, he told the Funke group of newspapers.

“I am confident that we can develop a joint strategy for Ukraine. My guiding principle remains that nothing can be decided without giving the Ukrainian people a say,” he told the paper in an interview.

He added he had spoken with the future US president “in detail” and that his team was in a direct exchange with Trump’s security advisers.

Ukraine is shaping up as a major issue in campaigning for Germany’s snap election in February, which follows the

collapse in November

of Mr Scholz’s three-party governing coalition in Berlin.

Mr Friedrich Merz, the conservative opposition leader who is on course to unseat Mr Scholz, has said Germany should send Taurus cruise missiles. Mr Scholz has opposed such a move, saying it could escalate the war.

Mr Scholz on Dec 2 announced new military aid for Ukraine during a

rare visit to Kyiv,

that he said sent a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Berlin would stand by Kyiv for as long as needed in the war. REUTERS