Germany's Merkel signals continuity with Paris trip
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-23 14:27

Germany's new Chancellor Angela Merkel may have made bolstering relations with the United States a foreign policy priority, but she is following longstanding precedent by travelling to Paris on her first foreign visit.

Both her predecessors Gerhard Schroeder and Helmut Kohl began with visits to Paris, pledging to uphold the Franco-German axis that has underpinned postwar German foreign policy.

Merkel's brief visit on Wednesday, the day after her formal appointment as Chancellor, is intended as a clear sign that the tradition remains in place.

She will see French President Jacques Chirac for lunch at the Elysee Palace but with less than two hours scheduled for the meeting before she flies on to Brussels, the trip appears to be more about symbolism than serious discussion.

Incoming German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) looks at outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder during a handing over ceremony at the chancellery in Berlin. [AFP]

"The visit to France is an avowal of the closeness of the German-French partnership," new Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told German television on Tuesday.

In Brussels, Merkel will meet NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, in a move her advisers say is intended to underline the importance of Germany's transatlantic partnership with the United States.

She will also meet European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and the head of the European parliament, Josep Borrell.

Steinmeier, one of Schroeder's closest aides, has said that German foreign policy will not undergo any radical shift under Merkel's new government of conservatives and Social Democrats.

While much attention has focused on her pledge to boost ties with Washington after the turmoil of the Iraq war, pressing problems, like the need for a quick deal on the next EU budget mean the day-to-day partnership with France is as vital as ever.