German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to Washington next week to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, with the war in Ukraine and trade tensions among the items on the agenda, the German government said Saturday.

Merz's office said the new German leader, who took the helm of Europe's biggest economy on May 6, will meet Trump at the White House on Thursday — the first in-person meeting between the two.

It said that the meeting will address bilateral relations and international issues such as Russia's war in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East and trade policy.

The top job has been late in coming for Merz, a lawyer by profession, who saw his ascent derailed by former Chancellor Angela Merkel in the early 2000s and even turned his back on active politics for several years.

Merz has plunged into diplomatic efforts to try to secure a ceasefire and keep Western support for Ukraine intact since becoming Germany's leader. On Wednesday, he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin.

Germany has a strong interest in defusing trade tensions between the European Union and the United states.

Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on goods imported from the 27-nation bloc starting Sunday, but then pushed back the deadline to July 9.

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