German state premier goes to US for trip focused on security, AI

DPA
·2 min read
North Rhine-Westphalia's state premier Hendrik Wuest stands next to an abacus (abacus) in a room of the association "Keiner geht verloren e.V." (KGV). The state premier of Germany's most populous state is departing for a visit to cities along the West Coast of the US on 14 April for talks that will focus on security policy and technology. Friso Gentsch/dpa

The state premier of Germany's most populous state is departing for a visit to cities along the West Coast of the US on Sunday for talks that will focus on security policy and technology.

Hendrik Wüst, the top politician of Germany's industrial hub of North Rhine-Westphalia, will stop in the Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle areas, accompanied by a delegation of business, science, aerospace, judicial, film and media figures, state officials said.

Wüst, a member of the centre-right Christian Democrats, is to visit a US company that is due to assemble the centre fuselage sections of the F-35A fighter jet into the aircraft's overall fuselage.

Germany's Rheinmetall defence group plans to make centre fuselage parts for the American F-35 fighter jet in a new factory near Dusseldorf, as of 2025.

Wüst's trip will also focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and he plans to visit Microsoft in Seattle to promote the long-term consolidation of the partnership between the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Microsoft. He also plans visits to Google and Stanford University, again with a focus on AI.

"Silicon Valley and North Rhine-Westphalia - they simply go well together. What California is for the US today, we want to become for the whole of Europe," he said.

By going to Silicon Valley, he hopes to strengthen current collaborations and also forge new partnerships, he said.