The United States has refused to enter into a bilateral no-spy agreement with Germany, and has refused to rule out eavesdropping on calls of German political leaders in the immediate future, according to reports in the German press.

It now appears that hopes in Germany that the United States would agree to a bilateral non-spying pact — similar to agreements between the United States and Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — have been dashed.

The German Government has told the Obama Administration it would consider such a “nest of spies” a breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. In August 2013, the German Government said that there had already been a verbal agreement and that a pact had been suggested by the United States.