[BBC] – A statement by US President-elect Donald Trump that Nato is “obsolete” has caused “worry” in the alliance, Germany’s foreign minister says.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it was a contradiction of comments made days ago by Mr Trump’s incoming defence chief.

Mr Trump also said German Chancellor Angela Merkel had made “a catastrophic mistake” by admitting more than one million migrants.

And he threatened German car makers with high import tariffs.

Shares in BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler fell after he warned that cars built in Mexico, where they have invested in factories, would be taxed at 35% if exported to the US.

BMW said the company would stick to its plans to open a Mexican plant in 2019.

Mr Trump was giving an interview in New York to two British and German newspapers, the Times and Bild, at Trump Tower.

‘Very unfair’

Nato, Mr Trump said, had been forged “many, many years ago” and had become “obsolete because it wasn’t taking care of terror”.

Mr Trump reiterated his criticism that “a lot of” Nato’s 28 member states were not paying their fair share.

“A lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States.”

Figures released by Nato show that just five member-states met or surpassed its defence spending goal – 2% of GDP – last year.

Nonetheless, Mr Trump added that Nato was “very important” to him.

Speaking in Brussels after consulting Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Mr Steinmeier said the president-elect’s comments had caused “worry and concern”.

“This is in contradiction with what the American defence minister said in his hearing in Washington only some days ago and we have to see what will be the consequences for American policy,” the German foreign minister said.

Only last week, the US deployed 3,000 soldiers, 80 tanks and hundreds of armoured vehicles to Poland in a move by President Barack Obama to reassure Nato allies concerned about a more aggressive Russia.

At his Senate confirmation hearing last week, Mr Trump’s choice for defence secretary, Gen James Mattis, had described Nato as central to US defence, and had accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to “break” the alliance.

President Putin’s official spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday it was too early to give a full response to a suggestion by Mr Trump that US sanctions against Russia over Ukraine could be dropped in return for a nuclear warhead reduction deal.

Mr Peskov also denied a report in the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper that Mr Putin and Mr Trump were going to hold a summit in Iceland.

EU ‘vehicle for Germany’

Mr Trump described Mrs Merkel as Europe’s most important leader but said the EU had become “basically a vehicle for Germany”.

Referring to the German chancellor’s response to an influx of refugees and other irregular migrants in 2015, he said: “I think she made one very catastrophic mistake and that was taking all of these illegals… And nobody even knows where they come from.”

Asked about Mr Trump’s comments, Mrs Merkel told reporters in Berlin that Germany would wait until after his inauguration and then work with the new administration to see what kind of agreements could be achieved.

Mr Trump linked the migrant issue with Brexit, suggesting it was a reason UK voters opted to leave the bloc.

He promised a quick trade deal between the US and the UK after he takes office on Friday but a European Commission spokeswoman reiterated that the UK would not be allowed to engage in formal talks involving a trade deal with the US until 2019, after leaving the EU.