Washington: Close allies US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will confer ahead of a G7 summit and meet local residents on a stroll through a small Bavarian town.
Officials said Thursday that the pair want to renew their own close cooperation before a great power meeting Sunday and Monday in Germany. The summit will be dominated by the crises in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq.
“Obviously the president has traveled to Germany in the past and has developed with Chancellor Merkel one of his closest partnerships in the world, on a whole host of issues,” Obama advisor Ben Rhodes said.
Rhodes said the pair would meet ahead of the summit at a castle in Bavaria “to make sure we are closely aligned, as we always are” before joining leaders from Britain, Canada France, Italy and Japan.
“We are planning for Sunday morning, before the summit starts, a meeting of the chancellor and President Obama” to focus on “common challenges we face,” a German official said.
“Part of the plan is a meeting with the citizens of the town Kruen.”
Charles Kupchan, the White House`s director for European affairs, said the leaders would take the opportunity to sample local food and culture in the beauty spot.
“And the President and Chancellor Merkel have built a very close personal relationship over the years, and we see this as an opportunity for them to spend a little bit of time outside the context of the formal summit, as well as to interact with the local citizens from the village,” he said.
Kruen in the Bavarian Alps is a town of about 2,000 people located 10 kilometers (six miles) from the luxury resort of Elmau Castle, where Obama and Merkel will meet the other leaders for two days under tight police protection.
Major issues to be discussed at the Group of Seven summit include the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq, while Merkel and Obama are also expected to talk about negotiations for a US-EU free trade pact.
Traditionally strong US-German ties have been tested by the NSA spying scandal including the alleged tapping of Merkel`s mobile phone, and more recently by reports of joint US-German surveillance of European targets, which has put Merkel under domestic pressure.
Obama last visited Germany in June 2013, when he spoke at the iconic Brandenburg Gate. He previously visited in 2008 as a White House candidate, when he drew an enthusiastic crowd of 200,000 people.