Germany welcomes China-US export deal, hopes for similar progress in EU-US talks

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BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany welcomes a China-U.S. agreement on easing rare-earth export restrictions and hopes negotiations between the United States and the European Union can progress in a similar way, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday.

“I expressly welcome it. This is not at the expense of Europe; rather, it is another conflict that has been resolved,” Merz said at a joint news conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Berlin.

U.S. and Chinese officials said they had agreed on a framework to put their trade truce back on track and remove China’s export restrictions on rare earths, though they offered little sign of a durable resolution to longstanding trade differences.

Asked about U.S. calls to take over Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic, Merz said Germany was on the side of international law and of Denmark, which has rebuffed the Trump administration on the issue.

“The principle of the inviolability of borders is enshrined in international law and is not subject to negotiation… We stand closely alongside our Danish friends on these issues, and that will remain the case,” Merz said.

Denmark and Germany are both NATO allies of the United States.

Merz said TV footage of unrest in Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids by the Trump administration was “disturbing”, but said he did not want to evaluate or judge U.S. domestic political events from Germany.

“I hope that a quick solution will be found and that these disputes will also be brought to an end quickly,” he added.

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Andreas Rinke; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Gareth Jones)