By IRNA,
Berlin : German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to participate in the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit in Washington following an invitation by US President Barack Obama, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday.
The nuclear security meeting due to take place on April 12 and 13 is to dwell on non-proliferation and securing atomic weapons and nuclear material.
Some 43 heads of states and governments, among them leading nuclear weapons states, are to attend the confab.
Merkel’s US visit which includes also a tour of other cities in the country, comes at a time of problematic ties between the US and the European Union after Obama canceled his attendance at the US-EU Summit in Madrid in May.
Berlin has been pressing for the withdrawal of all US nuclear weapons from its soil, saying it was no longer “serving Germany’s security interests.”
At least 20 American atomic warheads are reportedly deployed underground at a German air base in the southwestern town of Buechel where they can be mounted on German-made Tornado combat jets.