Following the embarrassing disclosures over American spying on Germany and other European allies, US President Barack Obama held a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Mark on Wednesday, during which they agreed that their top security officials will soon discuss the sensitive issue.
In the wake of leaks by American whistleblower Edward Snowden, German weekly “Der Spiegel” reported over the last weekend that the US National Security Agency had been involved in monitoring some 500 million phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany every month, apart from its bugging of European Union offices and other foreign missions.
Upon his return home from the weeklong African visit, Obama sought to address the mounting European concerns by speaking with Merkel.
“The President assured the Chancellor that the United States takes seriously the concerns of our European allies and partners,” said a White House statement, adding: “The leaders agreed to hold a high-level meeting of US and German security officials in the coming days to discuss these matters in greater detail.”
Obama and Merkel are said to have “reaffirmed the importance of continued close cooperation between our respective intelligence services in the fight against terrorism and other threats to the security of the United States, Germany, and our allies”.
The statement said the two leader also looked forward to the initiation of a US-EU/EU Member State dialogue on the collection and oversight of intelligence and questions of privacy and data protection, as proposed by Attorney General Eric Holder, as early as July 8.
While reports on the surveillance gave rise to initial demands in Europe for deferring the EU-US trade talks, the White House statement said Obama and Merkel have “reiterated their strong support for the launch of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations and welcomed the upcoming first round of discussions”.