Germany's Merz in Washington to meet Trump
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday in his first visit to the US capital since becoming chancellor a month ago.
The one-to-one meeting is scheduled for 11:30 am (1530 GMT), followed by a press event in the Oval Office and a working lunch.
Previous visits to the Oval Office by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were marked by controversies.
Merz's meeting will focus on efforts to end the war in Ukraine, NATO's response to growing external threats, and the trade dispute between the United States and the European Union.
Merz has already made it clear that he is not travelling to the US capital begging for support but as a confident representative of European positions.
The chancellor has only briefly met Trump once before, many years ago in New York. However, since taking office four weeks ago, he has spoken with Trump several times about Russia's war against Ukraine - both individually and in larger groups with other European leaders.
The two now address each other by first names and are in regular contact via text messages.
Merz is due to spend only about 17 hours in Washington and also plans to visit the Capitol, the seat of the two chambers of Congress.
In June, Merz and Trump are scheduled to meet twice more: at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada in mid-June and at the NATO summit later that month in The Hague.
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