German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her Christian Democrats (CDU) at a meeting that she saw no urgent need to offer financial aid for Turkey to ease its currency crisis, the conservative party’s general secretary said on Monday, Reuters reported.
“She made it clear again that she sees no urgency at the moment for special aid for Turkey,” Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told reporters after the CDU board meeting attended by Merkel.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert also said on Monday that Germany is not considering financial aid for Turkey as a measure to help Ankara weather its currency crisis.
“The question of German aid for Turkey is not on the government’s agenda at the moment,” Seibert said during a regular government news conference.
He was responding to a question about the possibility of German financial assistance for Turkey that was raised by Social Democrat (SPD) leader Andrea Nahles over the weekend.
Seibert also said it was up to Turkey to decide if it wanted to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance. He added that the question of financial aid was not the focus of talks between German and Turkish leaders.
According to a Der Spiegel magazine report, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz had tried to convince his Turkish counterpart, Berat Albayrak, to apply to the IMF for financial aid during their phone call on Thursday.
However, a spokesperson from his ministry denied the report, according to Deutsche Welle Turkish service.