German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will hold confidential talks on Friday in Washington with U.S. President Joe Biden about the war in Ukraine amid growing concerns that China may provide weapons to Russia as its invasion of Ukraine grinds into a second year, writes Reuters.

Biden and Scholz will meet for an hour at the White House, including a significant “one-on-one component,” a senior U.S. official said, giving the two men a chance to “exchange notes” on their respective recent meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the state of the war.

“Both of the leaders wanted this to be a working-level meeting, wanted it to be very much a get down into the weeds, focused on the issues of Ukraine”, - the official said.

A major topic will be the push to deliver fresh Western support to Ukrainian forces, which are bracing for new Russian offensive in coming weeks, officials said. Washington is due to announce a new USD 400 million military aid package for the Kyiv government on the day of Scholz’s visit, officials said.

His first trip to Washington since just before the invasion comes days after Biden’s security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told ABC that Biden overrode his military’s advice and agreed to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine because Scholz made it a pre-condition for sending German Leopards. Berlin says Biden came to see it was necessary and the decision was consensual.