Former President Barack Obama will discuss the tenants of Democracy in a pnael with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in May. | Getty Obama heading to Germany in May to talk democracy with Merkel

Former President Barack Obama plans to reemerge on the international stage in late May, sitting down with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her home country for a panel discussion about democracy.

The panel, part of a 500–year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, is titled “Being Involved in Democracy: Taking on Responsibility Locally and Globally.”


The visit will coincide with the beginning of President Donald Trump’s summer tour of Europe. Trump, who once called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “obsolete,” is scheduled to appear at a NATO leaders’ summit in Brussels the same day — May 25.

In a press release, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the chair of the Evangelical Church in Germany, said he extended an invitation to Obama in May 2016 to visit Germany for the Reformation anniversary.

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The event, which is being jointly sponsored by the German Protestant Kirchentag and the Obama Foundation, will reunite Obama and Merkel, who maintained a close partnership and friendship when Obama was commander-in-chief, despite some tensions between the countries.

Trump’s relationship with Merkel, instead, has been rocky from the start, as the two leaders have butted heads over their stances on immigration, international trade and NATO. Merkel has voiced concerns about Trump’s U.S. travel ban, which has been put on hold by the courts, and his expressed interest in changing international trade agreements. A meeting between the two world leaders in March did little to assuage concerns about U.S.-German relations.