Our relationship with the United States is not reduced to questions of fighting terrorism and the Iraq war. German-American relations were so good for so many years because they extended deeply into the normal lives of people.

On the issue past of independence of Germany, after the time of National Socialism, Germany has been given an enormous amount of help particularly and also from the United States of America. A fact that we were able to enjoy German unification is due first and foremost to the help of the United States of America.

Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people. Terror was brought to many countries on his direct orders and in his name, against men, women and children, Christians and Muslims. Osama Bin Laden claimed to be acting in the name of Islam, but in reality he made a mockery of the basic values of his and all other religions.

For my part, in everything I do, I aim to strengthen democracy in Germany and beyond. The United States is also a strong democracy. As we are seeing in Poland, for example, and also in Hungary, it is important that we have counterweights in democratic systems, and I believe they are still strong in America.

I believe that we do not share as many values with Russia yet as we do with the United States. On the other hand, we have a strong interest in Russia developing in a reasonable direction.

There's a rumour going around that states cannot go bankrupt. This rumour is not true.

Through the threat of IS, we recognize how important the cooperation with intelligence services (inaudible) first and foremost also with the services of the United States is.