Medvedev to visit Merkel in Berlin in June: Germany
BERLIN (Reuters) - Dmitry Medvedev will travel to Berlin and hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel in June on one of his first foreign trips as Russian president, a German government spokesman said on Tuesday.
"(President) Medvedev is set to come to Berlin in June but the details are still under discussion," spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said.
According to a German newspaper, U.S. President George W. Bush also plans to visit Germany in June following a joint European Union-United States summit in Slovenia.
The Financial Times Deutschland reported on Tuesday Bush would arrive on June 10 and spend one night in Germany.
A German government source confirmed efforts to arrange a visit in June were underway, but said neither a time nor a place had been agreed. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe declined to comment on a possible Bush trip to Germany.
Medvedev, 42, is due to be sworn in as Russian president on Wednesday, taking over from his mentor Vladimir Putin who will assume the role of prime minister.
He plans to travel to Kazakhstan and China on his first international trip as president. The Germany visit could be his first to a European country.
Merkel, who learned to speak Russian during her youth in communist East Germany, was the first foreign leader to visit Medvedev after he was elected to succeed Putin two months ago.
She came into office vowing a more critical approach towards Moscow than her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder and has not shied away from criticizing human rights violations and the suppression of press freedoms under Putin.
But she has also worked as a mediator between Moscow and Washington and will be keen to try to unblock long-delayed partnership talks between the European Union and Russia.
Germany is by far Russia's biggest single trading partner, with a record $52.8 billion in bilateral trade in 2007. German firms put $3.4 billion into Russia last year and have major investments in Russia's energy sector.
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(Reporting by Noah Barkin and Dave Graham; additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Robert Woodward)
