(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo canceled a visit to Berlin Tuesday at short notice, citing “pressing issues” that forced him to pull out of talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

“We look forward to rescheduling this important set of meetings,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in an emailed statement, without elaborating on the nature of the issues. “The Secretary looks forward to being in Berlin soon.”

Merkel’s office issued a terse statement saying that a joint appearance was called off “because of the visit’s cancellation by the U.S. side” and directing further inquiries to the American embassy in Germany.

President Donald Trump’s top diplomat was scheduled to visit Germany as part of a tour that began in Finland on Monday with a meeting with the Arctic Council, where he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Pompeo was then due to fly on to the U.K. and Greenland.

Tense Relations

U.S.-German relations have been tense since Trump’s election, weighed down by differences on trade, Germany’s balking at a ban of Huawei Technologies Co., U.S. criticism of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and Trump’s accusations that Germany is spending too little on defense.

Juergen Hardt, a lawmaker in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union who speaks on foreign policy issues, cited the U.S. statement on the cancellation and said it’s not a snub.

Still, “it’s a pity that this meeting isn’t taking place,” Hardt said in a statement.

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