New German leader Friedrich Merz will meet Trump at the White House next week

BERLIN AP German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will expedition to Washington next week to meet U S President Donald Trump with the war in Ukraine and bargain tensions among the items on the agenda the German ruling body noted Saturday Merz s office disclosed the new German leader who took the helm of Europe s biggest business sector on May will meet Trump at the White House on Thursday the first in-person meeting between the two It declared that the meeting will address bilateral relations and international issues such as Russia s war in Ukraine the situation in the Middle East and deal guidelines Merz has plunged into diplomatic efforts to try to secure a ceasefire and keep Western patronage 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 pact tensions between the European Union and the United states Trump threatened to impose a tariff on goods imported from the -nation bloc starting Sunday but then pushed back the deadline to July