Or is it? Behind the friendly smiles and warm words, tension has been brewing between the USA and Germany that transcends the Merkel-Trump animosities. A conflict of interest between Germany and the United States has grown in recent years. It’s part of a wider — and real — identity crisis: what kind of country does Germany want to be? Its geopolitical position in the centre of Europe has always made this a tricky question: East or West? The first German chancellor Otto von Bismarck experienced this headache trying to find a way forward for his newly created state, wedged between the great European powers of France, Britain and Russia. Famously he settled on the maxim: “The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.”

The German government seems to have taken a leaf out of the Iron Chancellor’s policy book. The controversial Russo-German gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, which is now nearly complete and sidelines the Eastern European nations, especially Ukraine, will make Germany ever more energy dependent on Russia. From Washington’s perspective this is a grave security risk.

Gerhard Schröder, Merkel’s predecessor as Chancellor has been entangled with the Russian energy company Gazprom and the Nord Stream project for years. Controversy was generated both in Germany, and in the US. (In 2005, the Washington Post described Schröder as a “sellout” due to his decision to work for Gazprom.)

But somehow nobody raised an eyebrow when Merkel’s government declared an end to nuclear energy in Germany following the Fukushima disaster of 2011. Having begun to phase out fossil fuels, particularly in the huge soft brown coal fields in North-Rhine Westphalia, in previous years, Germany is now in a position where its energy supply dictates its foreign policy.

In addition to Nord Stream 2, Merkel also pushed European investment deals with China without consulting Germany’s Western friends and Allies. This was an affront to the new Biden Administration as a deal was struck in December, before the new President had even been inaugurated.

The tone of Merkel’s visit to Washington may be friendly and congratulatory, but this is an easy diplomatic feat given that the German chancellor will be retiring in September. Merkel’s successor has serious geo-strategic thinking to do. The interests of the central-European states and the West are drifting further and further apart.

Germany is rapidly running out of fences to sit on.

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Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian and writer. She is the author, most recently, of Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990.

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