Just three days after the federal election victory of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), the bloc's leader, Friedrich Merz, met with French President Emmanuel Macron for a private dinner in Paris.

After the dinner, Merz posted in French and German on X : "Thank you, dear Emmanuel Macron, for your friendship and your trust in Franco-German relations. Together, our countries can achieve great things for Europe."

If he manages to forge a coalition government, Merz may come into office in a few weeks' time. Until then, Chancellor Olaf Scholz remains in office.

But Merz is in a rush for a reason: US President Donald Trump may be on the verge of negotiating a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine. However, neither Ukraine nor the EU are at the negotiating table, although Trump has said Europe should be responsible for subsequent security guarantees for Ukraine.

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Macron became the first European leader to visit Trump in Washington this week. However, he failed to make........

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