Later this week, President Joe Biden will travel to Germany – and then on to Angola. This is his first foreign trip since he withdrew from the presidential race in July and since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee. It will be Biden’s first bilateral visit to Germany since assuming office and the first time a U.S. President has paid a working visit to the country since November 2016, when Barack Obama traveled to Germany. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will award President Biden Germany’s highest honor, the Special Class of the Grand Cross, which is reserved for heads of state. This will be the first state visit by an American president since German unification in 1990 when George W. Bush received the same recognition.
President Biden will meet with German leaders to further strengthen the close ties between the two countries as they work together to meet common challenges. President Steinmeier’s office has said that he would like to show Germany’s appreciation for Biden’s services to German-American friendship and the transatlantic alliance – especially in light of Russian aggression against Ukraine. After two days in Berlin, the President will attend a Ukraine summit at the U.S. air base at Ramstein.
Join the American Council on Germany on October 10 for a virtual discussion about what to expect from Biden’s state visit to Germany. We’ll be joined by Stephan Detjen, Chief Correspondent for Deutschlandradio and the head of the station’s capital city studio in Berlin.