(Paris) The Arc de Triomphe and a descent of the Champs-Élysées with the Republican Guard: Emmanuel Macron deployed all the splendor of the Republic on Saturday for Joe Biden, in order to celebrate a relationship back on track after a few bumps.
The French president and his wife Brigitte welcomed the US presidential couple, Joe and Jill Biden, in a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. The two heads of state laid a wreath and revived the flame of the Unknown Soldier.
Then, under a beautiful Parisian sun, they drove down the most famous avenue in the world, decorated in the colors of their two countries, flanked by 140 horses and 38 bikers.
Everything is being done, on both sides, to clearly show that “we are closer than we have ever been,” as White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday. .
On the French side, we are delighted to be entitled to the longest foreign visit of the 81-year-old Democrat, and this in the middle of the campaign for the American presidential election in November, which will see him face Donald Trump.
Joe Biden arrived in Paris on Wednesday morning (without a public event on his agenda that day) and participated in Normandy on Thursday, with Emmanuel Macron, in the commemorations of the 1944 Allied landings. He will leave on Sunday after visiting an American cemetery .
The state visit itself takes place on Saturday.
This day of diplomatic pomp 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 visit will continue with a working lunch and conclude with a gala dinner.
Washington has promised announcements on maritime security in the Asia-Pacific region. Partnerships in the fight against climate change will also be discussed.
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.
Paris, for example, recently canceled the participation of Israeli arms manufacturers in the major Eurosatory defense exhibition.
Concerning Ukraine, the two countries, allies within NATO, promise with one voice to help Kyiv in the face of the Russian invasion. But 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.
The diplomatic crisis that followed remains one of the sharpest episodes of tension between the United States and its “oldest ally,” as it likes to call France.
Trade issues are also a source of tension between the two sides of the Atlantic, since Washington decided to massively help companies in the energy transition sector that invest in the United States.
“One of the things that [the US president] respects and admires so much about President Macron is his ability to be as honest and direct as he himself is. This is what he wants to see in a friend and an ally: an ability to get to the point and say what you think,” assured John Kirby.
To overcome the disagreement, the American president had also reserved for his French counterpart the first state visit to the White House of his mandate, in December 2022.
The two men now seem completely reconciled. Not to the point, however, of convincing the octogenarian president, who is less and less inclined to this exercise, to hold a joint press conference in Paris.
Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron will only make statements to the press on Saturday. Questioned on this point, John Kirby was not very forthcoming: “This is the device that was decided. »