The United States has angered Germany and France after allegedly seizing millions of masks set to be shipped to the European nations amid the coronavirus crisis.
On Friday, German officials hit out at America for 'intercepting' 200,000 masks they had ordered from a 3M factory in China.
As 3M is an American-owned company, the US was able to 'confiscate' the shipment of special FFP2 and FFP3 masks which were on their way to healthcare workers battling the COVID-19 outbreak in Berlin.
The masks had been delivered from 3M's factory in Shanghai and were due to be reloaded in Bangkok and flown to Germany.
But instead, the masks were intercepted at Bangkok Airport and instead went to the US.
'We consider that an act of modern piracy,' Berlin's interior minister Andreas Geisel blasted.
'You don't treat your transatlantic partners like that,' he is further quoted as saying in The Financial Times.
Geisel called on Germany's government to 'press the US to stick to international rules', while Berlin's mayor accused President Trump of 'lacking solidarity' following the seizure of the shipment.
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