Few world leaders have left office as lauded as Angela Merkel. When she stepped down as chancellor in 2021, after 16 years, Germany’s economy was the envy of Europe. Mrs Merkel had saved the euro and guided her nation through the pandemic.

Angela Merkel has set out to secure her reputation in a 700-page memoir in which the former German chancellor defends her 16 years in office. Critics increasingly believe that her leadership led Germany to chronic underinvestment, an underfunded military, and the growth of the far right.

The former German chancellor talks about Ukraine, Putin’s nuclear threat - and how she handled Trump.

Germany's longtime former chancellor, Angela Merkel, defended her policy on Ukraine on Tuesday, before presenting her memoirs in Berlin. She stuck by her refusal to pave the way for Ukraine to join the Western military alliance NATO via a Membership Action Plan at a summit in Bucharest in 2008.