During this second state visit to Washington, the French president intends to approach the question of the impact of war in Ukraine which nourishes tensions between Paris and Washington.
By Claire Gatinois (Washington, Special Envoy) and Philippe Ricard (Washington, Special Envoy)
All sets are summoned to make people forget past angry. Before Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Washington, from November 30 to December 2, the president’s second since his election, the Elysée took care to highlight the “rare privilege” thus granted to France. “Brand, we assure the entourage of the head of state, of the excellence of Franco-American relations”. On the American side, we appreciate “longevity” and “wisdom”, of the French leader. We must turn the page on the case of Franco-Australian submarines, a sales contract broken in 2021 by the Alliance of Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom (Aukus), originally of a major diplomatic crisis between the two countries. It is also a question of erasing the outrageous and the flip-flops of Donald Trump.
The “Bromance” (contraction of “Brother” and “romance”) displayed in 2018 between the former republican president and the head of state – nicknamed the “Petit Emmanuel” by his American counterpart – had been Stronged by the release of Washington of the Paris Agreements against global warming, the taxation of French wine or the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the agreement supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Basically and in form, the warming of Franco-American relations will be illustrated, in particular, by a private dinner that President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, must offer Wednesday November 30 to the Head of the And to his wife, Brigitte, in an Italian restaurant in Washington. “A moment of presidential intimacy” during which the two leaders will be able to exchange “in the very informal, very frank and very friendly framework of the relationship they maintain”, assures the Elysée.
The opportunity, perhaps also, to tackle the bothering subjects. Ally, does not mean “aligned”, we underline in Paris, where we claim, against the backdrop of war in Ukraine, a “demanding political dialogue” and “sometimes more difficult on certain subjects”.
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Accompanied by an areopling of ministers, including the essential Bruno Le Maire (Economy), Sébastien Lecornu (armies), Catherine Colonna (Foreign Affairs), Sylvie Retailleau (Higher Education), as well as men of Affairs such as Xavier Niel (individual shareholder of the world), boss of Illiad, Bernard Arnault (LVMH) or Patrick Pouyanné (Totalenergies), the Head of State hopes to convince the Democratic President that the American “leaders” is Not incompatible with the European “Partnership”. American power must not sit on the weakening of the European Union (EU), we hammer in Paris, where we plead to set up a “reinforced partnership” despite a report out of balance.
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