President Joe Biden will visit Berlin on Friday for a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a trip postponed earlier by Hurricane Milton, people familiar with the matter said.
Biden’s travel will be an abbreviated version of the original plan, and no longer includes a stop at the US military base in Ramstein, where the president had been set to meet with other world leaders to discuss support for Ukraine, said the people, who discussed the plans on condition of anonymity.
While in Germany, Biden is expected to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the people said.
It’s unclear whether UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will take part in Biden’s meeting with Scholz, according to the people. They’d been part of the original agenda to assemble the so-called Quad of leaders from either side of the Atlantic.
The White House declined to comment.
Biden’s previous itinerary had called for him to travel from Europe to Angola, to fulfill his promise to visit the African continent and to build on a multi-lateralist infrastructure investment agenda in a bid to counter Chinese influence.
Biden has said publicly he’s committed to rescheduling the trip to Angola, telling reporters last week that he would work the trip out later but needed to focus on hurricane recovery efforts.
With assistance from Joshua Gallu and Justin Sink.
