Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has written an autobiography in which she reaffirms her decision to push back against offering Ukraine future membership in NATO at a summit in 2008 despite criticism that such a move may have prevented Russia from invading Ukraine.
In the book, Merkel reflects on how that decision and others during her 16 years in office have fared over time and recalls her relationships with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021 was launched in Berlin on November 26 nearly three years to the day after she left office and ahead of a promotional tour of major European cities and the United States.
The 70-year-old Merkel, known for her calm and unflappable leadership style, in the book rejects blame for any of the current strain in the West's relations with Russia in a rare commentary on her time in office.
Concerning the 2008 Bucharest NATO summit, Merkel noted a pledge that Ukraine and Georgia would eventually join the western military alliance was a "battle cry" to the Russian leader, adding that he later told her: "You won't be Chancellor forever. And then they'll become a member of NATO. And I want to prevent that."
SEE ALSO: Ukraine Live Briefing: Merkel Defends Stance On NATO Membership For KyivSix years later Putin launched the Russian occupation and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and followed that with the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which the Russian president has justified in part by citing Kyiv's NATO membership desires.
Russia Is 'An Indispensable Geopolitical Factor'
Putin was always on guard not to be treated badly and engaged in power games, according to the book.
Merkel wrote about his inclination to make others wait and recalls how, despite her fear of dogs, he allowed his black Labrador to be in the room during a meeting in 2007 in Sochi.
“You could find all this childish, reprehensible, you could shake your head at it,” she writes. “But that didn’t make Russia disappear from the map. Russia with its nuclear arsenal exists and remains “an indispensable geopolitical factor.”
Merkel also details her experience with Trump during his first term as president, saying he “judged everything from the perspective of the real estate developer he had been before entering politics.”
She writes that they “talked on two different levels,” in their March 2017 meeting at the White House. “Trump on an emotional level, me on a factual one.”
Trump 'Captivated' By 'Dictatorial Tendencies'
She added that Trump, who won a second non-consecutive term on November 5, did not share her conviction that cooperation could benefit all but instead believed that all countries were in competition with each other.
“He did not believe that prosperity of all could be increased through cooperation,” she writes of the U.S. president, who "was captivated by politicians with autocratic and dictatorial tendencies."
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Trump Meets Merkel After Calling Germany 'Captive' To Russia
Merkel also writes about the difficulties of being the first female candidate for chancellor and her decision to welcome large numbers of migrants and displaced people in 2015 in the 700-plus page memoir, which is being simultaneously published as an audiobook and translated into more than two dozen languages, including French and English.
She will make a special presentation in Washington on her book tour to to present it in the United States on December 2 alongside former U.S. President Barack Obama.
The book is being published as Germans rethink her legacy, including her policy on migration, which many in Germany believe led to a surge in the far right.
The former leader of Germany's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) uses the book to justify the decisions she made regarding Russia, which launched its invasion of Ukraine just five months after Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats (SPD) was elected to succeed Merkel, who had decided not to seek reelection.
Under Scholz the German economy has stagnated. The war in Ukraine prompted Berlin to wean itself off cheap Russia gas. At the same time the country has had to deal with a reduction in exports to China.
Scholz now faces a challenging campaign for reelection after the collapse of his coalition government.