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Global

German foreign minister: response to alleged U.S. spying was right


    BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's decision to ask the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country was an adequate, inevitable response following fresh allegations of U.S. spying on Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Friday.

    "Our decision to ask the current representative of the U.S. intelligence services to leave Germany is the right decision, a necessary step and a fitting reaction to the break of trust which has occurred," Steinmeier told reporters.

    "Taking action was unavoidable, in my opinion. We need and expect a relationship based on trust."

    He added a strong transatlantic partnership was especially important now given international crises. He would tell U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna on the weekend that Germany was eager to revive that partnership on the basis of mutual trust.

    (Reporting by Alexandra Hudson and Stephen Brown, writing by Annika Breidthardt)