John Kerry meets with Germany's foreign minister amid spy scandal

VIENNA, July 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Vienna on Sunday on the sidelines of the ongoing Iranian nuclear talks.

The meeting between the U.S. and German senior officials followed announcements by the German government that two government employees were suspected of committing espionage on behalf of the U.S., and that the senior American intelligence representative in Germany had been asked to leave.

On Sunday, Kerry and his German counterpart "discussed a number of difficult issues," the secretary said at a joint press conference afterward.

Kerry noted that those issues included the ongoing Iranian nuclear negotiations, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East. The secretary of state did not directly say whether he and Steinmeier addressed the controversy surrounding Germany's investigation into U.S. spying, but Kerry instead emphasized the two countries' "strategic" and enduring relationship.

"We have enormous political cooperation, and we are great friends. And we will continue to work together in the kind of spirit that we exhibited today in a very thorough discussion."