Conservative German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is also traveling to Washington on Monday, has so far been vague on the issue of a potential German troop deployment to Ukraine. In an interview immediately after his election in February, he suggested that Germany could participate if the U.S. does so.

But despite a huge expansion of military spending, Germany has struggled to recruit and train battle-ready soldiers, with troop levels flatlining at around 182,000 despite significant efforts to grow the force. In April, Germany officially launched its first permanent foreign troop deployment since World War II — a 5,000-strong armored brigade in Lithuania intended to bolster NATO’s eastern flank in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine.