U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit allies in London, Berlin, Paris and Rome before heading to the Middle East and North Africa in his first international trip as the top U.S. diplomat, the State Department said Tuesday.
The trip Sunday through March 6 will see Kerry meet with British
officials before heading to Germany, where he is to hold bilateral
meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido
Westerwelle, according to German officials.
"He'll also have a chance in Berlin to exchange views with German
young people on the state of European-American relations. And his
visit to Berlin will also be an opportunity for him to reconnect with
a city in which he lived as a child," State Department spokeswoman
Victoria Nuland said.
Kerry will then travel to Paris for talks on international efforts
in Mali. In Rome and Ankara his plans include multilateral talks on
Syria.
Kerry will also visit Cairo to "encourage greater political
consensus and moving forward on economic reforms" as well as meet
with Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Araby.
The trip will wrap up with visits to Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha
for talks with leaders on regional issues in the Middle East as well
as a ministerial meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Saudi Arabia.
