Biden is expected to visit Berlin next week

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Lerato Khumalo

Joe Biden was actually supposed to visit Germany this weekend. However, he postponed the trip because of a problem at home. Preparations are now underway for a quick replacement date.

US President Joe Biden probably wants to make up his visit to Germany next week. According to information from the news magazine “Spiegel” and the German Press Agency, there are plans for meetings with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin on Friday. However, there is no official confirmation of this yet.

Biden had originally planned the trip for last Friday and Saturday, but canceled it at short notice due to a hurricane in the USA. The Democrat had actually wanted to spend two and a half days in Germany and, in addition to Berlin, also wanted to visit the US air force base Ramstein in Rhineland-Palatinate in order to organize a high-level Ukraine conference there. He then wanted to travel on to Angola for a visit.

The visit to Germany was originally planned as a formal state visit with an official banquet and other honorary appointments – but according to dpa information, it will now be an “official visit reduced to the core elements”. According to “Spiegel”, it is still planned for Biden to be awarded the special level of the Grand Cross of the Federal Order of Merit by Steinmeier for his services to German-American friendship.

It is Biden’s first bilateral visit to Germany in his almost four-year term in office. The US President took part in the G7 summit in Elmau in 2022 and made refueling stops with his government plane at the American military base in Ramstein on another occasion, but did not dedicate a solo trip to Germany. The 81-year-old now wants to make up for this shortly before he leaves the White House. Biden will leave office in January.