US officials reportedly state that Trump to ask Merkel for advice on Putin, Ukraine
US President Donald Trump will ask Chancellor Angela Merkel for advice on how to deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US officials said on Friday, as the U.S. and German leaders meet next week after sometimes pointed disagreements in recent months.
Merkel will visit the White House on Tuesday for talks with Trump and a joint news conference in what will be their first face-to-face meeting since the new US president took power on Jan. 20. They are expected to discuss Germany's level of defense spending for the NATO alliance, the Ukraine conflict, Syrian refugees, the European Union and a host of other issues, said three senior Trump administration officials who briefed reporters.
During the 2016 US presidential campaign, Trump regularly criticized Merkel for her open-door refugee policy, contrasting it with what he promised would be tighter controls in the United States if he won office. Merkel has been a leading critic of Trump's effort to ban travelers temporarily from seven Muslim-majority nations, a list that has since been pared back to six.
