Netanyahu and Merkel
Netanyahu and MerkelFlash 90

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Benjamin Netanyahu next Thursday for talks, as part of a regular annual meeting of the two countries' cabinets, AFP reported Friday.

The two leaders will hold bilateral talks before joining a plenary with ministers from both sides, in what would be the sixth such meeting.

Such "government consultations" is a format Germany has with only a handful of countries, including India and China.

Germany is widely seen as Israel's strongest European ally but their ties have been strained in recent years.

Netanyahu strongly opposes a deal between six world powers, including Germany, and Iran ending a 13-year standoff over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

In addition, Merkel and Netanyahu have had differences of opinions with regards to peace talk between Israelis and Palestinians.

Germany and Israel have held regular "government consultations" since 2008, an arrangement where the two sides meet at regular intervals to discuss specific topics. In one that was held in Berlin in December 2012, Merkel and Netanyahu “agreed to disagree” over Israeli construction in areas the Palestinian Authority claims for a future state.

Merkel visited Israel in 2014 as part of the government consultations, and during that visit repeated her call for a “two-state solution” to solve the conflict.

“Part and parcel of the secure future for the State of Israel is the two-state solution, for which the federal government has also been working - a Jewish state of Israel and alongside it, a Palestinian state,” she said.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)