German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to meet Donald Trump in Washington today
GERMAN CHANCELLOR FRIEDRICH Merz will visit US President Donald Trump at the White House today.
Merz will be the latest world leader to sit down with Trump in the Oval Office.
These media events have become a staple of the second Trump administration, and some have resulted in public bust ups between leaders and the combative US president.
Trump's trade war tariffs are likely to be on the agenda when the two leaders meet, as is defence spending, which Germany has committed to ramping up in light of US pressure and Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.
Germany's car manufacturing industry has been particularly badly hit by US tariffs.
The country exported around 3.4m passenger vehicles to the US in 2024.
A month into the job, the conservative Merz, 69, is a staunch transatlanticist at pains to maintain good ties with what he considers post-war Germany's 'indispensable' ally, despite Trump's 'America First' stance and an increasingly hostile posture towards the European Union.
The two men have different approaches to the war in Ukraine, with Trump moving away from supporting its efforts to defend against the full-scale Russian invasion and Germany recently expanding its supply of weaponry.
The two do share some political ground though.
Merz has sought to implement extremely restrictive border measures, which were blocked by a court ruling earlier this week. Trump has also suspended asylum procedures at the southern border of the United States.
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Both countries are also extremely close allies of Israel and Merz has promised not to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he takes up his invitation to visit Berlin, despite an International Criminal Court warrant for alleged war crimes.
'We're not supplicants'
Merz, the leader of the EU's biggest economy, has argued that the bloc must be self-confident in its negotiations with Washington, saying that 'we're not supplicants'.
Despite the transatlantic tensions, Merz said he was 'looking forward' to his first face-to-face meeting with Trump.
'Our alliance with America was, is, and remains of paramount importance for the security, freedom, and prosperity of Europe,' he posted on X yesterday.
His office has also voiced confidence that Merz will be spared the kind of public berating that Trump gave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa.
Merz is looking ahead to the meeting 'with great calmness and joy', his spokesman Stefan Kornelius said, pointing to their 'very good relationship' so far.
'Germany is the third-largest economy in the world, and we have a lot to offer as an economic partner of the USA,' Kornelius said.
'At the same time, a very constructive and positive relationship with America is very important to us, for our own economy and for the security of Germany and Europe.'
The two leaders – both with business backgrounds and keen golf players – are on first-name terms after several phone calls, Kornelius said, and Merz now has Trump's cellphone number on speed dial.
Trump has German ancestry. His paternal grandfather Fredrick Trump emigrated from Germany to the US in 1885.
With reporting from AFP
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