Washington: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will pay a visit to Germany on Wednesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, US State Department said.
“This trip provides an opportunity to honour the sacrifices of the past and to celebrate the present freedom, stability, and prosperity that all the people of a united Germany have enjoyed since the fall of the wall and to recommit, to strengthen our bilateral ties,” Sputnik quoted a senior State Department official as saying during a briefing on Pompeo’s visit.
Pompeo is scheduled to meet his counterpart Heiko Maas as well as Chancellor Angela Merkel, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz during his visit.
Along with talks on the situation in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iran, German officials earlier said that the latest push to advance the peace process in Ukraine would be at the heart of the deliberations with Pompeo.
“Obviously, we’ll continue to reaffirm our unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and our support for any new momentum for peace in eastern Ukraine… We’ll continue our commitment to work with allies and partners to keep the pressure on Russia to live up to their commitments under the Minsk agreements,” the official said.
The official further said: “Pompeo will affirm the strong US-German relationship and discuss joint efforts to further the cause of freedom and counter… emerging global threats including from Iran, Russia, and China.”
His visit comes amidst widening differences between Washington and Berlin over Germany’s share of defence spending as well as its participation in the Nord Stream-2 pipeline.
Pompeo is slated to visit a synagogue that was the scene of a recent anti-Semitic attack and conclude his visit with a speech at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
“[Pompeo] will highlight the United States’ continuing commitment to defend the fundamental rights, freedom, and human dignity,” the State Department official said.
The secretary of state has said the trip has a sentimental value for him given that he served as a US Army officer in what was then West Germany.