WH: Dec. 1st State Visit for France’s Macron
Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Washington in early December for the first state visit of President Joe Biden’s tenure, an occasion marked by pomp and pageantry that is designed to celebrate relations between the United States and its closest allies. The Dec. 1 visit will be the second U.S. state visit for Macron, who was first elected to lead his country in May 2017 and won a second term earlier this year. Macron had a state visit during the Trump years.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced the visit Monday, saying it will “underscore the deep and enduring relationship with France, our oldest ally.”
The invitation also is a sign that the relationship between Biden and Macron has come full circle. It hit rock bottom last year after the United States announced a deal to sell nuclear submarines to Australia. The decision by the U.S. undermined a deal that had been in place for France to sell diesel-powered submarines to Australia.
Last week, French president Emanuel Macron has told countries at the United nations General assembly 77th, New York, not to stay neutral about condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine as he declared that Moscow’s invasion amounts to a new form of imperialism, No nation can stay indifferent on Ukraine war.
The war in Ukraine — and its effects on food prices, fuel costs, Ukrainian nuclear power plants, and the larger context of tensions between Russia and the West — is looming over the annual gathering of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other dignitaries.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine has yet had its turn to speak during the nearly week-long series of speeches.
French President Emanuel Macron admonished countries Tuesday not to stay neutral about condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine as he declared that Moscow’s invasion amounts to a new form of imperialism.
The war in Ukraine — and its effects on food prices, fuel costs, Ukrainian nuclear power plants, and the larger context of tensions between Russia and the West — is looming over the annual gathering of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other dignitaries. Neither Russia nor Ukraine has yet had its turn to speak during the nearly weeklong series of speeches.
Macron made the war the centerpiece of his speech, arguing that the conflict threatens to usher in a world where “the security and sovereignty of everyone no longer depends on a balance of strength, on the strength of alliances, but rather that of armed groups and militias.”
Macron called on the United Nations’ member countries “to act so that Russia rejects the path of war,” and he said that staying out of the matter isn’t an option.
“Those who are keeping silent today actually are, in a way, complicit with a cause of a new imperialism, a new order that is trampling over the current order, and there’s no peace possible here,” he said. “The war in Ukraine must not be a conflict that leaves anyone indifferent.”
“We’re not talking about choosing a camp here between the East and the West, between the North or the South, either,” the French president insisted. “What we’re talking about is everybody’s responsibility — everybody who’s committed to the respect of the (U.N.) Charter and our common, precious good: peace.”
