Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier presented his colleague and friend, US Secretary of State John Kerry, with the Grand Cross 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on December 5. The distinction is Germany’s highest honor and is conferred by Federal President Joachim Gauck. John Kerry’s political reason includes a quality that really gets to the heart of what characterises our transatlantic alliance, indeed what defines the very project of the West, namely the belief in informed democracy and the ability of each and every citizen to think for themselves,” Foreign Minister Steinmeier said at the ceremony in Berlin.
Source: germany.info