Newly sworn-in German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to hold his first face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday in the Oval Office.
The visit takes place against a backdrop of escalating global challenges, News.Az reports, citing CNN.
Trump has issued another round of warnings to the European Union on tariffs; the war in Ukraine appears no closer to ending; and pressure is mounting on Israel over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Since taking office, Merz has been on a tour of European capitals, meeting with France’s Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Keir Starmer and Poland’s Donald Tusk – before they all appeared in Kyiv alongside Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in a show of European unity.
The one major omission has been a meeting with Trump. While there have been phone calls between the two, the handshake accompanied by the frantic clicks of camera shutters will mark the start of the new German-US relationship.
Germany’s status as the economic powerhouse of Europe and Merz’s repositioning of the country as a leader in European security – which includes a commitment to beef up its military and fall in line with Trump’s demands for NATO members to increase defense spending – underscore the importance of a successful encounter.
Both Vice President, JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have recently criticized Germany’s decision to classify the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party, as “certainly right-wing extremists”, and therefore expanding surveillance on the party.
Both took to X, to express their anger at what they called the German “establishment” for the designation. Secretary Rubio said, “that’s not democracy – it’s tyranny in disguise”.
Vance followed up by saying Germany is trying to redivide the country, “the West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt — not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment.”
The German Foreign Ministry, for its part, said on X, the decision was democratic, “the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law.”
Merz, a few days later, also rejected the statements, saying “Germany was liberated from tyranny by the US; Germany is stable, liberal, and democratic today. We don’t need a remedial lesson in democracy.”
