OLAF Scholz had little foreign policy experience before becoming German chancellor, having previously served as minister for finance, plus labour and social affairs, in two of Angela Merkel’s governments. Yet, his biggest political tests now are in global affairs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Scholz has sometimes struggled in the international arena, and tensions continue to exist between Berlin and some key allies about the pace and scope of Western support to Kyiv. This was shown in the initial disagreements between Scholz and US President Joe Biden over providing tanks to Ukraine. So Scholz now needs to step up to the plate, and in recent months, he has undertaken a wide range of foreign travel from Latin America to Asia, including Japan and China. Yet his most important foreign trip so far comes on Friday (Mar 3) with his meeting with Biden.
In the post-war era, the German alliance with the United States has long been strong. Yet it frayed badly during the Trump presidency. The personal relationship between Donald Trump and Merkel may have been the worst, by some stretch, compared with their recent predecessors. As well as their personal differences, Merkel got a rocky ride from Trump on several issues in the bilateral relationship. This included trade and defence spending, which previous US presidents had been more sanguine on in public.
