Emmanuel Macron pulls out all the stops. All the splendor of the Republic is deployed for Joe Biden, on a state visit to Paris this Saturday, June 8, and to celebrate a relationship that has returned to good health after some diplomatic turbulence. Everything is being done, on both sides, to show that “we are closer than we have ever been,” John Kirby, a White House spokesperson, 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.
The program of the state visit is busy: the French president and his American counterpart, after a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe scheduled for 12:30 p.m. local time, will travel to the most famous avenue in the world, decked out in the colors of their two countries, by 140 horses and 38 bikers. The two presidents will participate in a ceremony to rekindle the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In the background: the American anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, will sound, followed by The Marseillaisebefore the leaders attend an “air parade”, according to the program provided by the Élysée.
The visit will continue with a working lunch between Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron, scheduled for 1:10 p.m., then the two leaders will speak to the press. According to the Élysée, the French president will then participate in a “Franco-American business council” at the American Chamber of Commerce in France, located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, where around a hundred French and American companies will be brought together. A joint speech by the French and American presidents is expected to follow.
At 7:40 p.m., a state dinner in the form of a banquet will conclude this diplomatic day. Joe Biden will leave on Sunday after laying a wreath at the Bois Belleau American cemetery (Aisne), in tribute to the soldiers who fell during the First World War. For this visit, Joe Biden will be accompanied by his wife Jill, returning from the United States. There First ladyalongside her husband on Thursday in Normandy, had left France to attend the trial of Joe Biden’s son Hunter on Friday, tried for illegal possession of a weapon.
On the menu: Gaza and Ukraine
This diplomatic day could further fuel criticism from opponents of the French head of state who accuse him, before the European elections this Sunday, of having campaigned all week under the guise of dealing with foreign policy. Washington, for its part, promised announcements on maritime security in the Asia-Pacific zone. 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. So on the conflict in Gaza. Since the unprecedented attack by Hamas, Joe Biden has been the strongest supporter of the offensive led since then by Israel, where France distances itself from the way in which the Israeli army conducts its operations.
On 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 fact remains that 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 its “oldest ally”, as they like to call France.
“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. That’s what he wants to see in a friend and an ally : an ability to get straight to the point and say what you think”, assured John Kirby. To overcome the disagreement, the American president had also reserved the first state visit to the White House of his second term for the French head of state, in December 2022.