Angela Merkel
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday that an Asia-Europe summit in Brussels showed that some two-thirds of the world was committed to multilateralism and recognised the benefits of free trade.
"The summit shows that countries have gathered from Europe and Asia who want a rules-based trading and have pledged themselves to multilateralism," she said, adding it was an important signal given that Europe and Asia represented almost two-thirds of world GDP, trade and population.
"Our theme is about creating connections, for example through free trade agreement... We can show that it's about creating win-win situations, making it clear that when one profits, the other also profits."
The European Union and Germany's government will not block an extension of the post-Brexit transition period, but an extension alone will not solve the problems on hand, European Affairs Minister Michael Roth said on Friday."If that solves problems and if a few more months are needed to negotiate the details of future relations, then it will certainly not fail because of the EU-27 and because of us in Berlin," Roth told German broadcaster WDR."But an extension alone does not solve the problems," he added." "There is no reasonable solution yet over a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland."UK is considering other ideas to break Brexit deadlock: PM May's spokeswomanToo early to know cost of Brexit transition extensionBrexit impasse continues due to lack of progress
Extension of Brexit transition would not solve the problems: German minister