Don’t forget Crimea and Aleppo,German minister warns Trump

BERLIN: Germany supports a dialogue between the United States and Russia, but Donald Trump must not ignore Russian actions in Crimea and Aleppo when he sits down with President Vladimir Putin, the German defence minister said on Friday.

Speaking at an event in Berlin, Ursula von der Leyen also said that Nato would be "dead" if any one of its members refused to come to the defence of another that was under attack.

Trump, who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election this week, praised Putin repeatedly during his campaign and questioned whether the US should defend Nato allies that were not shouldering their fair share of the financial burden in the alliance. "It is a good thing when the new American president immediately seeks a dialogue with the Russian president.

It is good and it has our full support," von der Leyen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel´s conservatives, said.

"What can´t happen is forgetting - forgetting the annexation of Crimea, forgetting the hybrid war in Ukraine which continues, forgetting the bombardment of Aleppo," she said.