French President Emmanuel Macron is midway through his two-day visit to Germany, spending time with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the great Hanseatic city of Hamburg.

They should be the European Union's power couple, but Scholz and Macron have found it hard to get a bromance going – whereas the previous incumbent of the Kanzleramt, Angela Merkel, always seemed to find some common ground from which to show in a united front.

Officially, according to the German government briefing, the meeting is about "economic transformation." There were set to be some announcements on artificial intelligence and a trip to the Airbus factory – a sector in which Berlin and Paris work together commercially, just not so well when it comes to developing a new European fighter jet.

German-French-Spanish outfit Airbus have had a quite public bust-up with French defense giant Dassault over which direction the future of European fighter jets should go in.

It is a similar situation when you look at the land-based military co-operation projects. MGCS, or the Main Ground Combat System, was launched in 2017 and it was intended to come up with a replacement for the Leclerc main battle tank operated by France and the Leopard operated by Germany. The problems have been many and they have been expensive.

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The aims right now have been scaled right back with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius saying he hoped that by the end of this year, the two nations can agree on which parts of the new tank they will each look to develop.

There's also a big sticking point between the two sides of the River Rhine on how the European relationship with Washington should look. The fighter jet and battle tank co-operation projects were born out of necessity under the years of the Trump Presidency.

France is still quite keen on the idea of European autonomy while Germany, under the three-way coalition that Scholz's SPD head up, has sought to fall in line with the U.S. on foreign policy – certainly with the Green Party's Annalena Baerbock as Foreign Minster.

All of these issues are sure to be overshadowed by the ongoing and developing situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The French President and the German Chancellor will make a joint statement pledging their support for Israel in the conflict.

It isn't just the leaders who are meeting in Hamburg: the respective cabinets from Berlin and Paris are also along for the visit. Monday evening will see the two groups head out onto the "high seas" – or at least circumvent Hamburg harbor – on a sunset boat cruise before the meetings wrap up on Tuesday morning.

There was a commitment made last year that Berlin and Paris would get together at cabinet level every six months – that's what this trip is all about – but it doesn't make it any less awkward on the big issues.

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