Germany has cancelled a Cold War-era agreement on information-sharing with the United States and Britain as recent revelations about U.S. online spying put the government under increasing pressure and criticism, media reports said Saturday.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement Friday that the cancellation of the information-sharing agreements is a "necessary and proper consequence of the recent debate about protecting personal privacy".
The British Foreign Office confirmed in a statement that the 1968 agreement had been stopped after a request from German government, adding that the pact "hasn't been used since at least 1990."
Recent reports of widespread U.S. spying have sparked outcry in privacy-sensitive Germany. Thousands of protesters braved the heat wave in late July and took to the streets across Germany against the U.S. internet surveillance in the country.
The protestors also voiced support for fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden who revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) was monitoring phone calls and Internet data connections in Germany as well as spying on the headquarters of the European Union
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