Olaf Scholz to meet Biden on Friday after transformative year

• Olaf Scholz and Joe Biden have built a strong friendship over the past year.
• Supported by their common opposition to Russia’s incursion.
• Scholz returns Friday for meetings with President Joe Biden.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last travelled to Washington one year ago, when Russian forces had not yet crossed the border into Ukraine.

And grim predictions of an impending invasion from the White House had been regarded with skepticism.

After a momentous year that compelled Germany to make its largest change in military and energy strategy in decades and Europe to drastically reassess its own security, Scholz returns Friday for meetings with President Joe Biden.

Scholz, who assumed office two months prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has emerged as a crisis manager, managing Europe’s strongest economy and most potent democracy during the worst bloodshed to hit the continent since World War II.

And it has brought him and Biden into one of the most important relationships in the world, one that is supported by their common opposition to Russia’s incursion but occasionally strained over how to react.

According to White House sources, Biden and Scholz, who will follow longtime chancellor Angela Merkel at the end of 2021, have built a strong friendship over the past year.

Three phone conversations were place between them in January alone, and they are anticipated to have a lengthy one-on-one conversation in the Oval Office on Friday during their meeting at the White House.

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