DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's ruling Christian Democrats, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, criticised U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday for making it "more difficult to work together in the world".
Asked about U.S. threats of sanctions against German companies involved in the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Kramp-Karrenbauer told Bloomberg television:
"I think that the manner in which the American administration conducts its politics - with a great deal of sanctions, with leaving a number of international agreements - this is not a good way of working with others."
Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Angela Merkel as leader of their Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in December, praised the chancellor for delivering a robust defence of multilateralism a day earlier at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Merkel, who has been German chancellor for 13 years, lauded compromise as a virtue in international relations in an address on Wednesday to global political and business leaders in Davos.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, who joined Merkel on Thursday for a Davos breakfast meeting with leading women from politics and business, said negotiations, compromises and international rules that were adhered to had allowed world powers to achieve much in the past.
"It is very difficult if one of the partners is now saying these rules no longer apply and they are leaving agreements," she added, according to an English translation of her comments. "That makes it more difficult to work together in the world."
(Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Gareth Jones)