You don't have to read gossip columns to know that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have been seeing a lot of each other lately.
But romance is far from the scene in their meetings. The two participated in the G8 summit held June 6 to June 8 in Heiligendamm, Germany, and prior to that, they met at the EU-Japan Summit, which took place in Berlin the day before. And later in August, Chancellor Merkel will visit Japan.
One of the key areas where the two leaders are very much in agreement is the environment. Merkel managed to persuade the other G8 leaders to sign off on a plan to reduce global-warming gases by 50 percent.