A weakened Angela Merkel sought to reclaim her place on the world stage on Wednesday as she spoke out against Russian and Turkish aggression and warned President Donald Trump against protectionism.

Mrs Merkel tried to put damaging election losses and months of difficult coalition negotiations behind her as she set out her new government’s programme to the German parliament.

She defended her controversial refugee policy and said it was time for Germany and Europe to do more to solve the crisis “on the EU’s doorstep” in Syria.

“We have been too half-hearted for too long,” she said, as she spoke out against “the gruesome acts of the Assad regime in eastern Ghouta while Russia looks on”.

She condemned the Turkish military offensive in Syria “in the strongest possible terms”, adding: “For all Turkey's legitimate security interests, what has happened in Afrin, where thousands and thousands of civilians are persecuted, killed or forced to flee, is unacceptable. This too we condemn in the strongest terms.”

On the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, she said: “I wish I did not have to name Russia today, but we cannot ignore the evidence”.

Germany “stands side by side with Britain” over the poisoning, she said, but she had a harsher message on Brexit. “The relationship with Britain will not be as close as it is today after Brexit,” she said. “That's why we need a detailed trade deal with Britain.”