President Joe Biden welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the White House for what is likely to be her last official visit and one to which she’s bringing a bag full of issues and an overarching message for Berlin’s close ally: You’ve got a friend.
The veteran German leader is expected Thursday to discuss the Covid pandemic, the rise of China and Russia gas pipeline that Washington opposes. She will meet with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other senior U.S. officials.
“In part, this is a farewell visit. In part, she is signaling continuity and stability in the German-U.S. relationship,” said Johannes Thimm, a senior fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, a think tank in Berlin.
After 16 years of dealing with Merkel, many officials in Washington and elsewhere are wondering what course Germany might take after the next election. The longtime chancellor, who has dealt with four US presidents in her time, will seek to reassure them that there won’t be a huge shift, Thimm said.
Merkel’s party is leading in polls ahead of Germany’s Sept. 26 election, but the environmentalist Greens and the center-left Social Democrats are also vying to lead a future government. While the three parties differ in many policy areas, all are committed to a strong trans-Atlantic relationship.
One sour note that preceded and outlasted the Trump era of diplomatic discord with Washington has been the thorny issue of a new pipeline taking natural gas from Russia to Germany.
Biden is expected to raise his concerns about the pipeline project when the two leaders speak privately, but the White House was not anticipating any sort of formal announcement to come out of the leaders’ talk, according to a senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters ahead of the chancellor’s visit.
While German officials have been unusually coy about which topics will be discussed during the trip, Merkel’s spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that China will come up.
Merkel has insisted on the need to cooperate with China on global issues such as combating climate change and tackling the coronavirus pandemic, even while Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump was accusing Beijing of having started it.
And while there are points of tension, Biden seems eager to offer Merkel a proper farewell. Harris will host Merkel for a working breakfast at her residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Merkel will also receive an honorary doctorate, her 18th, from Johns Hopkins University and is scheduled to speak at the university’s School of Advanced International Studies.