American President Joe Biden wants to receive Chancellor Angela Merkel in the White House in a few weeks. Merkel's visit to Washington is planned for July 15, the White House announced on Friday. A spokesman for the federal government confirmed the travel date. It is a "working visit". "Details of the program will be announced at a later date." It is expected that Merkel and Biden will meet in person on the weekend on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Cornwall, southern England, for the first time since it took office. After the low point in German-American relations in the era of President Donald Trump, both are striving for a fresh start. Trump repeatedly attacked Germany and Merkel. Biden, on the other hand, leaves no doubt how important the relationship with Germany is to him.

Not only did he stop the withdrawal of American troops from Germany ordered by Trump. Last month, Biden also waived extensive sanctions against the German-Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The reason given was that such punitive measures would have had a negative impact on “US relations with Germany, the EU and other European allies and partners”. The meeting in Cornwall will show whether the dispute over the pipeline is really over and thus the last obstacle to restarting German-American relations has been removed.

Merkel was very reluctant to travel abroad during the corona pandemic and recently only traveled to individual summits in Brussels or, as is now the case, to England.

The trip to Washington should also be one of her last as Chancellor.

After the general election in September, she will step down as Chancellor.

So far, in view of the corona pandemic, Biden has only received two foreign guests: Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and South Korea's President Moon Jae In.

According to the planning so far, Merkel would be the


third high-ranking guest from abroad in Biden's tenure.