Biden To Meet Scholz At White House Shortly

15:00 ET 20:00 GMT: President Biden is shortly due to meet bilaterally with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House to discuss Ukraine and the Middle East. Scholz comes to the meeting armed with a recently ratified 50-billion-euro European aid package for Ukraine.

• The German Chancellor met with US Senators yesterday to urge Congress to keep pushing for Ukraine support, likely conveying a message that Europe has done its bit and overcome Ukraine sceptics in the union to force through aid.
• Henning Hoff of the German Council on Foreign Relations told DW: "The Republicans seem unwilling to help the Biden administration for electoral reason. It now looks very much as if the US will drop out as a supporter of Ukraine."”
• Scholz wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week: “...a Russian victory would make the world a far more dangerous place. It would also strain our budgets while putting the freedom and prosperity of each of us in peril.”
• AP reports that Heather Conley, president of the German Marshall Fund in Washington, said that Scholz will be looking to hear from Biden on his “Plan B” if Congress remains at loggerheads over funding for Ukraine: “If in fact, there is no forthcoming U.S. supplemental, what tools does the U.S. administration have at its disposal?”
• As has been the case through much of his presidency, Biden is not scheduled to appear alongside Scholz for a press availability following their meeting.