German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will meet US President Donald Trump today, hoping to build a personal relationship despite disagreements over Ukraine and the threat of a trade war.

For a month, the 69-year-old conservative leader Mertz has been a staunch transatlantic who has sought to maintain good ties with "indispensable" ally post-war Germany despite Trump's unyielding "America First" stance, AFP reports.

Merz hopes his pledges to significantly increase Germany's NATO defence spending will appeal to Trump and that the two will be able to find common ground over confrontation with Russia after the US president expressed growing frustration with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

On Trump's threat to impose higher tariffs on the EU, Merz, as leader of the world's largest economy, said the 27-member bloc should be assertive in its negotiations with Washington, arguing that "we are not supplicants."

Despite the dangers, his office expressed confidence that the chancellor would be spared the kind of public censure that Trump delivered in the Oval Office to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa.

Merz is looking forward to his first personal meeting with the US president "with great calm and joy", his spokesman Stefan Cornelius said, highlighting their "very good relations" so far.

"Germany is the third largest economy in the world and we have a lot to offer as an economic partner to the US. At the same time, a very constructive and positive relationship with America is very important for us, both for our own economy and for the security of Germany and Europe," Cornelius explained.

The two leaders - both with business backgrounds and avid golfers - address each other on a first-name basis, Cornelius says, and Mertz already has Trump's cellphone number on speed dial. | BGNES