German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met Pope Francis on Saturday at the Vatican for a private audience, DW reports.
Although the two leaders have met before, Saturday's meeting was their first private face-to-face meeting.
Neither the Chancellory nor the Vatican said what they would discuss ahead of time, but the situation in the Middle East and Russia's war in Ukraine were likely to come up.
Scholz arrived in Rome on Friday and met Italian President Sergio Mattarella. He will not meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is currently visiting the United States. Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group.
Scholz was scheduled to meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez after his meeting at the Vatican. They are both expected to attend the Party of European Socialists (PES) gathering in Rome that comes ahead of June’s European elections.
