(Paris) The American and French presidents, Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron, displayed their unity of views on Saturday in Paris in the face of transatlantic challenges, starting with the war in Ukraine, and the specter of a possible return of Donald Trump.
From the descent of the Champs-Élysées escorted by 140 horses and 38 bikers from the Republican Guard to the banquet at the presidential palace, this state visit, without substantial announcement, aimed above all to showcase the friendship between the two countries.
Before the state dinner, the toasts given by the two leaders echoed each other, each recalling 1776 and 1944, the Marquis de Lafayette and the soldiers of the DDay, the support of the French for the independence of the United States and the landing of American forces in Normandy.
“France and the United States are together, today and forever,” assured Joe Biden.
“Allies we are and allies we will remain,” said Emmanuel Macron.
PHOTO EVAN VUCCI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
United States First Lady Jill Biden, United States President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and the French President’s wife Brigitte Macron in front of the Arc de Triomphe
He welcomed the wedding air hovering over the reception, which included singer Pharell Williams in jeans and a cowboy hat, actresses Salma Hayek and Bérénice Béjo and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.
The French president indeed invited to the banquet a 100-year-old American veteran, Harold Terens, who had married his 96-year-old fiancée, Jeanne Swerlin, that same morning in Normandy, and wished them a happy marriage, to the applause of the audience. standing.
PHOTO LUDOVIC MARIN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron pay tribute to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris
Earlier in the day, Emmanuel Macron had praised the “clarity and loyalty of a partner who loves and respects Europeans”, a remark in the form of a dig at Donald Trump.
The former American president regularly threatens to no longer participate in the protection of Europeans against Russia within the Atlantic Alliance if he is re-elected in November.
During joint statements to the press, Joe Biden, who is seeking a second term, assured him, after the release of four Israeli hostages in Gaza, that he would continue to mobilize until “all” were released.
“Synchronization”
Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron will obviously discuss the major international issues of the moment, on which the 81-year-old democrat and the president 35 years his junior are generally in harmony, if not impeccably aligned.
Since the unprecedented attack by Hamas, the American president has been the strongest supporter of the offensive led by Israel in Gaza, where France distances itself from the way in which the Israeli army conducts its operations.
On Ukraine too, nuances exist. Washington is careful not to follow all the impulses of the French president, for example on the possible sending of military instructors to Ukrainian soil.
A few days before a crucial G7 on this issue, the two presidents committed to a common “road map” “to support efforts” to “benefit Ukraine from the considerable profits coming from immobilized Russian sovereign assets”.
Trade issues remain sources of tension, since Washington decided to massively subsidize the energy transition.
“Our desire is truly that we can move towards synchronization” in terms of regulation and level of investment, assured Emmanuel Macron, who had heavily insisted on the distortion of transatlantic competition during his state visit to Washington in December 2022.
PHOTO EVAN VUCCI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden at the Élysée
This first state visit by the American president to France took place at the end of the commemorations of the 80e anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy.
Before the Europeans
Joe and Jill Biden were welcomed at midday at the Arc de Triomphe then at the Élysée by Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron.
Joe Biden, who arrived in Paris on Wednesday, participated in Normandy on Thursday, with Emmanuel Macron, the Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky and around twenty heads of state and government, in the D-Day commemorations. He will leave on Sunday after visiting an American cemetery.
This day of diplomatic ceremonies could fuel criticism from opponents of the French head of state who accuse him, before Sunday’s European elections, of having campaigned all week under the guise of dealing with foreign policy.
The relationship between the two men has greatly improved since in September 2021, the United States took away, under France’s nose, a major submarine contract with Australia.
The diplomatic crisis that followed remains one of the sharpest episodes of tension between the United States and their “oldest ally”, as they like to call France.