US President Joe Biden will receive German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks on July 15, the White House announced on Friday.

Merkel‘s first state visit will "affirm the deep bilateral ties between the United States and Germany," said White House press secretary, Jen Psaki.

Their common goals include ending the COVID-19 pandemic and slowing down climate change. Both Biden and Merkel will be ″promoting economic prosperity andinternational securitybased on their shared democratic values," Psaki said.

The visit was announced on the first day of the Group of Seven meetings between the countries of UK, France, Italy, Canada, the USA and Germany meeting in Cornwall.

Relations between the US and Germany have become strained over the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline that transports Russian gas to Europe.

The United States is holding back sanctions on the Russian state energy firm Gazprom that built the pipeline, giving Biden and Merkel three months to come to terms with the dispute,

Japan and South Korea are the only countries to have visited the White House so far, as Biden came to office in the middle of the pandemic.

jc/aw (Reuters, AP, dpa)