Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced late Wednesday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Paris on November 11 to commemorate Armistice Day. "On November 11, we will be together here in Paris," Sarkozy told journalists on welcoming Merkel to the Elysee Palace for a working dinner.
In accepting Sarkozy's invitation, Merkel will become the first-ever German leader to commemorate the end of World War I, and Germany's defeat, in France.
In 1998, then president Jacques Chirac asked Gerhard Schroeder to come to Paris for the Armistice Day events, but the German chancellor controversially turned the invitation down.
According to a report earlier this week by the daily Le Monde, both Sarkozy and Merkel are to hold speeches at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, at the Arc de Triomphe, on November 11.
On November 9, Sarkozy will be in Berlin to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with Merkel and numerous other heads of state and government.
Merkel traveled to Paris to discuss with Sarkozy the EU summit to be held in Brussels Thursday and Friday.
It was her first foreign visit since her re-election, and Sarkozy said that it was a "great honour" for France that she came to Paris on the day of her inauguration for a second term.
He also praised Merkel for her decision to lower taxes to increase economic growth, calling it "a good thing for Europe."
