FORMER U.S. President, Barack Obama, is to visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a leader he has commended as one of his “favourite partners’’ during his time in office.

The afternoon meeting of the close allies in Berlin would not be open to the press.

However, high on the agenda are thought to be Trans-Atlantic ties, which have come under strain since President Donald Trump took office over two years ago.

As German Chancellor, Merkel has worked with three U.S. presidents and enjoyed, especially close relationship with Obama.

His last international trip as president was to Germany in November 2016.

He returned in 2017, when he told a huge Berlin crowd that Merkel had done “outstanding work, not just here in Germany, but around the world’’.

Obama arrived on his latest trip to Germany on Thursday, addressing an audience of 14,000 in Cologne’s Lanxess Arena to say that he was “confident and cautiously optimistic’’ that the U.S. would soon be a world leader again on climate change.

He expressed frustration with current U.S. policies in the area but noted that the state of California, for example, was implementing all the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

-NAN

BE

– Apr. 5, 2019 @ 11:09 GMT |