US President Joe Biden is making his first official bilateral visit to Germany during his term today, who landed yesterday, Thursday, just before 10:00 pm (local time), at Berlin airport with the presidential plane Air Force One. The US president’s visit was originally scheduled to take place from October 10 to 13, but was postponed due to the hurricane “Milton” that hit the Florida area and is finally taking place now, limited in time, but in an excellent climate for Germany-US relations .

Joe Biden’s visit was finally limited to the absolutely necessary meetings, as, according to the official schedule, the American president will leave Berlin today at 17:10 (local time). At 10:00 a.m. Mr. Biden will arrive at Bellevue Presidential Palace, where he will be received with military honors by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit, the highest honor in Federal Germany. Statements to the press and an official reception will follow. At 11:30 he will go to the chancellery, where he will have a meeting and lunch with Chancellor Olaf Solz, where a media briefing is also planned.

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are expected at the chancellery at 1:45 p.m. The four-part meeting will focus on developments in Ukraine and the Middle East. This meeting was originally supposed to take place last Saturday in Berlin.

The presence of Joe Biden in Berlin, a few days before the presidential elections and almost three months before the end of his term, marks a phase of highly upgraded bilateral relationsmainly due to the close cooperation in support of Ukraine. In addition, from the White House side, it became known in the past few days that the American president wanted to personally express his gratitude to Olaf Soltz, who accepted last August to be included in the exchange of prisoners between Russia and the West, and Vadim Krazikov, a Russian agent, sentenced to life in prison for the August 2019 murder of a former Chechen fighter in Berlin. Krazikov’s surrender had been set by the Kremlin as an absolute condition for the release of 16 prisoners in Russia.

For the visit of Joe Biden, the highest level of security measures is applied in Berlin, with more than 2,500 policemen guarding the movements of the American president, together with officials of the American Secret Service. The area around the hotel where he will be staying, on Potsdamer Platz, has been cordoned off since yesterday, Wednesday, but at least 200 people were waiting for Mr. Biden on the street as of late tonight. For today, however, protest demonstrations have been announced for the US position in the Middle East, under the slogan “Joe Biden is not welcome”.