Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day on 5 May (AFP)
Israel hopes to strengthen ties with Germany under new Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The Prime Minister of the Jewish state, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated this at a meeting with the new head of the German Foreign Ministry, Johann Wadephul, who arrived on a visit to Jerusalem, News.Az reports.
“We have excellent relations, which we will continue to develop through negotiations, and in fact have already begun. We have many common interests, common values and many common challenges. Mr. Minister, I am confident that as we continue to cooperate, we will further strengthen our partnership. I convey my best wishes to Friedrich Merz for our joint efforts to strengthen the alliance between Israel and Germany,” Netanyahu said, as reported by the Prime Minister’s Office.
In turn, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who also received Wadeful in Jerusalem, noted that Israel was the first country outside Europe to which the new head of the German Foreign Ministry went on a visit. “I consider the fact that you, Mr. Minister, came here on your first visit outside Europe as an expression of the strategic relations between Israel and Germany. We congratulate Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the formation of the new government and hope to cooperate with you. We consider Chancellor Merz and you, the Minister, to be true friends of the State of Israel,” Saar noted, whose statements were distributed by the press service of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
He added that Wadephul’s visit is timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. “Germany is our largest trading partner in Europe. This visit underlines the importance of deepening and strengthening our relations with Germany and its new government,” the minister said.