Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel will tour Israel’s National Holocaust memorial on Sunday and hold talks with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on her last official visit to the country after 16 years in power.
Kyiv. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – October 11, 2021 – Diplomatic Affairs
Merkel, who is on her eighth visit to Israel since taking power in 2005, is expected to lay a wreath at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in honor of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.
German governments have made strong ties with Israel a top priority since World War II, and Merkel has sought to strengthen bilateral security and economic ties. Germany is one of Israel’s largest trading partners.
It is expected that Bennett will honor Merkel as he will host her during a meeting of his cabinet on Sunday morning at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Merkel, the 67-year-old trained physicist, will receive an honorary doctorate later Sunday from the Technion in Haifa – the Israel Institute of Technology, in northern Israel.
Merkel had planned the visit in late August, but canceled the visit, citing the tense situation in Afghanistan, where the United States, Germany, and others have evacuated personnel before the August 31 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign forces.
After an inconclusive election on September 26, Germany’s Social Democrats are now courting smaller parties to form a coalition that would replace a conservative group led by Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
Merkel plans to step down once a new government is formed.
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Source: Ukrgate
