Euro will always be 'strong': Merkel

HANOI: The euro will always be a "strong currency", German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday after Slovakian lawmakers rejected an expansion of a key eurozone bailout fund.

"The euro has been and will always be a strong currency. Given the public debt issues at some of the European Union's member countries, I don't want the EU to become a debt union, but a strong union instead," Merkel said at a business forum in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam.