10:50 pm
Friday, January 20, 2023
Berlin – (dpa):
A ministerial meeting between France and Germany is scheduled to take place, which was postponed last fall amid reports of a cooling in relations.
The meeting will be held next Sunday on the 60th anniversary of the treaty that reconciled the two formerly hostile neighbors.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and members of parliament will meet in Paris to discuss economic, energy, defense and European politics, according to what Berlin and Paris announced.
It is noteworthy that the meeting was originally scheduled for last October, but it was suddenly canceled, as Germany indicated the need for more coordination on core issues. Paris said at the time that the main topics of defense and energy still needed to be discussed.
The meeting is expected to start next Sunday morning with the commemoration ceremony of the Elysee Treaty at the Sorbonne University, where the leaders of the two countries will speak.
The so-called 23rd Franco-German Cabinet, which brings together the governments of the two sides, is scheduled to meet in the afternoon and draft a joint declaration on the future of Europe. Later, the leaders of the two countries plan to have dinner together.
The war in Ukraine is expected to be a major topic at the meeting, as well as cooperation in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Paris said it did not expect a breakthrough on Sunday on the contentious issue of whether Germany would deliver specific battle tanks to Ukraine.
