(Bloomberg) -- Jan Hecker, a close confidant of Chancellor Angela Merkel, has died only days after assuming his role in Beijing as German ambassador to China.

“I mourn for a highly regarded long-time adviser, with a deep humanity and extraordinary competence,” Merkel said in an emailed statement Monday in Berlin. “Jan Hecker’s death deeply shocks me.”

The 54-year-old belonged to a small circle of Merkel’s close advisers, having gained her trust during the refugee crisis of 2015. Two years later, he became her top foreign policy adviser and was present at her meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden at the Group of Seven summit in Cornwall in June.

Merkel, who will step down after next month’s election, sent Hecker as ambassador to China to try to preserve her friendly relations with Beijing, according to a person with knowledge of her thinking who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

The cause of Hecker’s death has not been made public. Andrea Sasse, a spokeswoman for the German foreign ministry, told a regular government news conference on Monday that there are “no indications that this death has any link to ambassador Hecker’s political function.”

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