Defiant Merkel ‘fights for vision’ in refugee crisis

Chancellor Angela Merkel, under fire from German conservatives for her handling of the European migration crisis, on Friday defended her government’s decision to deport refugees who first registered in another EU country.

“The German government supports the German bid”, Merkel told reporters, in a rare government comment about such deals, after meeting visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is pressing the German soccer federation to get to the bottom of allegations surrounding the 2006 World Cup.

“I have no intention or desire to give advice on these matters to the German Chancellor”, he said.

Not preaching turn-back-the-boats policy…

“Right now, the very narrow sea lane between Turkey and Greece is under the control of (people) smugglers”, she said, and that was “unacceptable”.

The two leaders were also quizzed on the millions of displaced Syrians as a result of the conflict.

There are reports the United States president, Barack Obama, may meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over the coming days at the G20 summit, with Syria expected to be a major focus of the talks in Antalya.

Merkel said it was a pleasure to tackle what she described as Germany’s biggest challenge since reunification in 1990, and vowed to press ahead with her plans to beef up the EU’s outer borders and to tackle the roots of the refugee crisis.

She said it was vital that there was a fair distribution of the refugees in Europe, of the 160,000 now planned for resettlement.

Government figures said the breakthrough agreement reflected an elevation in the Germany relationship, recognising it has been the “odd one out” when Australia had “2 plus 2” co-operation with the USA, Japan and China, as well as Britain.

ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems has put in a bid to win the $A20 billion contract against rivals from France and Japan. “We believe our company can offer good quality and I think that is something that should speak for itself”.

Turnbull said Australia was conducting a competitive evaluation process “to determine the party that will cooperate to construct the new submarines”.