(Plumelec) American President Joe Biden began a visit to France on Wednesday, where he will participate in the commemorations of the Allied landings of June 6, 1944 launched by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, before a state visit on Saturday to Paris, with the desire to show Western unity against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
Expected when he gets off the plane in Paris by French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, Mr. Biden will reach the Normandy beaches on Thursday for the 80e anniversary of D-Day, where he will meet King Charles III, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Head of State Sergio Mattarella, but also Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He will then make his first state visit to France.
Mr. Biden must speak during official ceremonies on the beaches of Utah and Omaha Beach where “73,000 courageous Americans” landed to “open the way for the liberation of France and Europe,” said the House. White.
On the sidelines of this program, he will have the opportunity to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart to see “how we can continue to deepen our support,” she added. Further discussions between the two men are planned during the G7 Summit in Italy, June 13-15.
From Monday, around fifty American veterans, some of whom participated in June 6, 1944, landed at Deauville airport, in Normandy, to attend the festivities. “Welcome to France to the heroes,” Mr. Macron wrote on X on Tuesday.
A strong symbol, Russia, invited ten years ago and former ally of the United States and the United Kingdom against Nazi Germany, was formally excluded from the ceremonies because of its invasion of Ukraine.
“Defend freedom”
The French presidency has made no secret of its desire to display Western unity at a time when a major conflict is once again hitting Europe. Mr. Macron must in particular clarify his intentions regarding the possible sending of military instructors to Ukraine.
On June 7, Joe Biden is due to give a speech at Pointe du Hoc, still in Normandy, “on the importance of defending freedom and democracy”, according to the White House. A message that he intends to intensify in view of the new presidential election in November.
Received on Saturday in Paris at the highest protocol level, Mr. Biden will be welcomed at the Arc de Triomphe, before interviews and a banquet at the Élysée with Emmanuel Macron.
“While 80 years after the Liberation of Europe, war is back on the continent, the two presidents will discuss the unfailing and long-term support to be given to Ukraine,” said the French presidency.
“This close coordination on international crises will be intended to prepare the next international events, in particular the G7 Summit”, in mid-June in Italy, “and the NATO summit”, in July in Washington, added this source.
Emmanuel Macron is due to launch the D-Day celebrations in Plumelec on Wednesday with first tributes to the Breton resistance fighters, the first paratroopers of Free France and the numerous civilian victims of the Second World War.
PHOTO BENOIT TESSIER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
French President Emmanuel Macron
“We will continue to honor all the memories of those who contributed to our liberation: those who stood up to fight Nazism, those who fought on all fronts, those who suffered and those who took all the risks to ease the suffering,” writes President Macron in the press kit for this extraordinary diplomatic meeting.
“Capital of Ruins”
In the afternoon he will go to Saint-Lô, in Normandy, for a speech on the civilian victims of Allied bombings. “Capital of ruins”, according to the expression of the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, the city was 90% destroyed on the night of June 6 to 7. In total, these Allied bombings caused 50,000 to 70,000 civilian victims, including 10,000 in Normandy alone.
Finally, on Wednesday evening, still in Normandy, Emmanuel Macron will pay tribute to the inmates of Caen prison, mainly resistance fighters, shot by the Germans during the Landings.
As Sunday’s European elections approach, which look bad for his camp, the French president has decided to extend the commemorations this year over three days, from Wednesday to Friday.
In the midst of his re-election campaign, Joe Biden hopes to take advantage of this visit to France to distance himself from his rival Donald Trump, entangled in his legal setbacks.
After a visit on Thursday to the American cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer, in Normandy, where he will meet veterans, he must lay a wreath on Sunday at the American cemetery of Bois Belleau, in tribute to the soldiers who fell during the First World War.
In 2018, Donald Trump gave up going there, officially because of bad weather.