After submarine crisis, series meetings and symbolic gestures between Kamala Harris and Emmanuel Macron

The US Vice President must stay five days in the French capital to try to mitigate tensions related to the recent Alliance between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom in the Pacific.

by

The place and the interlocutor change, but the double objective remains: continue to purge the abscess aroused in France by the recent Alliance between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom (Aukus), in order to Restart a good time for all cooperation between Paris and Washington. After meeting Joe Biden in Rome, here twelve days, Emmanuel Macron received the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, Wednesday, November 10 to the Elysee. “Very happy to be in Paris”, just launched the American leader to journalists massed in the courtyard, after being welcomed without depusions on the perron of the palace by the French president.

The appointment was a new stage in the reconciliation work engaged between the French executive and the Biden administration, since the live anger triggered in Paris by the Aukus affair. The announcement, mid-September, of this Anglo-Saxon defense pact in the vast Indo-Pacific region has not only led to the breakdown of the Australian sales contract of twelve French conventional submarines, for the benefit of American buildings nuclear power supply. But she also generated a moment of unprecedented mistrust between France and its three allied nations, accused of “duplicity”. Distrust that the visit of Kamala Harris is specifically trying to reduce, after the words of contrition, without excuse, pronounced by Joe Biden in Rome.

In the Italian capital, on the sidelines of the recent G20 summit, the US President had tried “clumsy” the way to the French. He had also supported the projects of his counterpart on the European Defense, in addition to NATO, the role of the continent in the Indo-Pacific and the strengthening of anti-terrorism cooperation in the Sahel. Escauded, Mr. Macron remained on his guards, anxious to get “evidence” of the American good will.

A round table on digital stakes

In Paris, the vice-president’s trip must last five days – M me Harris arrived Tuesday morning, with her husband, and will leave Saturday. His program therefore mixes symbolic gestures and appointment opportunities with Mr. Macron. After a first visit to the Pasteur Institute, at the meeting of American and French researchers working on COVID-19, the Vice-President went Wednesday to the US Cemetery of Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine), where are buried 1,500 dead soldiers at the First World War. History to emphasize, beyond the tribute, the commitment of the United States alongside France at the dark hours of the European continent.

You have 46.55% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.

/Media reports.