No statement has been made yet from the US Government regarding the new spying scandal that threatens the Germany – U.S. relations.

On her part, Angela Merkel who is currently visiting China states that the US spying allegations are very serious.

Following revelations that a German foreign intelligence service employee was spying for the US, the German Chancellor stated from Beijing that the spying allegations are very serious and a clear contradiction of the trusting cooperation between the two countries.

The relations between Germany and the US were already strained after the revelations last year that the US National Security Agency allegedly tapped Merkel’s mobile phone. Germany’s “Iron Lady”, in a joint press conference with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, said that, “if the reports are correct, it would be a serious case” and added that ” it would be for me a clear contradiction as to what I consider to be trusting cooperation between agencies and partners.”

According to Reuters, the White House and State Department have so far declined to comment on the arrest of a 31-year-old employee of Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency.
The American news network underlines that surveillance is a sensitive issue in a country where memories of the Nazi’s Gestapo secret police and communist East Germany’s Stasi ensure the right to privacy is treasured.