German Chancellor Angela Merkel invited Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Berlin this month, an offer made during a same-day telephone call between the two on Monday.

During their telephone conversation, the meeting in the German chancellory was fixed for March 23.

The Greek PM responded positively to the invitation.

This meeting comes at a time when relations between Berlin and the radical leftist government in Athens are strained on matters of Greece’s fiscal readjustment and debt, as well as the most recent Greek demand over German WWII reparations.

Purported strained relations between the two countries’ finance ministers, Wolfgang Schaeuble and Yanis Varoufakis, are also generating increased media coverage, despite the latter’s continuous claims to the contrary.

Tsipras has reiterated since Greek elections on Jan. 25 that a meeting with the German Chancellor was not amongst his priorities.