(Plumelec) US 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 to Paris on Saturday, with the aim of displaying 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 return to the Normandy beaches on Thursday for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, where he will meet King Charles III, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the head of the Italian State Sergio Mattarella, but also the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He will then make his first state visit to France.
Mr. Biden is scheduled to 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,” the House said. White.
On the sidelines of this program, he will have the opportunity to speak with his Ukrainian counterpart to see “how we can continue to deepen our support,” she added. Further talks between the two men are planned at the G7 Summit in Italy, June 13-15.
Starting 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.
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 scheduled to deliver 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.
“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 every risk to ease the suffering,” writes President Macron in the press kit for this extraordinary diplomatic meeting.
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 in Colleville-sur-Mer, in Normandy, where he will meet veterans, he is due to lay a wreath on Sunday at the American cemetery in 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.