Regional official Boris Pistorius as new defense minister

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will appoint a regional official as the new defence minister following the resignation of the much-criticised Christine Lambrecht, the dpa news agency reported Tuesday.

The defence minister-designate, Boris Pistorius, is a member of Scholz’s Social Democrats, and has been serving as interior minister of Lower Saxony since 2013.US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is scheduled to visit Berlin this week and then host a meeting of allies at the Ramstein Air Base in western Germany. On Sunday, the German and French governments will hold bilateral talks that include a meeting of the countries’ joint Security Council.