According to the information, Merz and Trump will be the first personal meeting. The Chancellor is given the honor to spend the night in the US President’s guest house – the Blair House. This is in close proximity to the White House.
Merz and Trump have only phoned with each other since the Chancellor’s took office. Last Wednesday, Merz ‘Foreign Minister Johann WadePhul (CDU) had traveled to Washington and met there with his US colleague Marco Rubio.
Trump had announced in the election campaign to bring about a quick end to the Ukraine war broken out in February 2022. In fact, the diplomatic efforts to end the war have been reinforced in the past few weeks. The first direct meeting between representatives of Russia and Ukraine for three years in mid -May in Istanbul, however, did not make any progress in the direction of a ceasefire.
Merz, who had visited the Ukrainian head of state Wolodymyr Selenskyj in Kiev three weeks ago with France’s head of state Emmanuel Macron, the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the British Prime Minister Keir Karrmer, has repeatedly impressed the efforts of the Ukraine war.
Another important topic in transatlantic relationships is the hard trade policy course that Trump has been pursuing since the beginning of his second term in January. This has shaken the global supply chains and the stock markets.
Last week, Trump had threatened with general tariffs on EU goods in the amount of 50 percent, but then initially postponed them again. On Friday, the US President announced a doubling of import duties for all steel and aluminum imports to 50 percent, which is scheduled to take action next Wednesday.
Transatlantic coordinator Hakverdi hopes that the first personal conversation between Merz and Trump will develop a good relationship between the two statesmen. “It would be desirable if the Chancellor and the US President could develop a good personal connection at this first meeting,” Hakverdi told the “Tagesspiegel” (Sunday edition).
However, one should “not expect too much of the appointment in the White House,” emphasized Hakverdi. “The US President is too unpredictable for that.” The SPD politician considers it possible that Merz Trump can “win a common peace initiative for Ukraine” for “at best”.
