Harper arrives in Germany for Merkel meeting, discussions with business leaders

Photo: Facebook Page of PM Stephen Harper

MUNICH – Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Germany today to meet with German business representatives as he prepares for a discussion with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Harper has arrived in Munich from the Netherlands, where he attended an emergency G7 meeting on Ukraine on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague.

He is scheduled to meet with the Bavarian Business Association before flying to Berlin for Thursday’s meeting with Merkel. As the two most senior leaders in the G7, Harper and the chancellor have a close relationship.

He’s expected to urge Merkel to keep up the economic pressure on Russia, which was essentially booted out of the G8 earlier this week because of its recent annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Amid the worst eastern European crisis since the Cold War, Harper directed some particularly harsh barbs at Russia in The Hague on Tuesday.

The prime minister questioned the “mentality” of Moscow’s leadership for scoffing at Canada’s condemnation of its actions in eastern Europe and for sanctioning a prominent Ukrainian-Canadian.