French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington today to discuss a range of issues – from aligning policy on Russia's invasion of Ukraine to easing trade spats – with US counterpart Joe Biden.
The three-day visit is Macron's first under the presidency of Joe Biden and comes a year after a diplomatic row between Paris and Washington over an Australian submarine deal.
Macron, who attended a dinner at the White House with former president Donald Trump in 2018, becomes the first French leader to be honoured by two US state visits.
He will be accompanied by an entourage of foreign, defence and finance ministers, as well as business leaders and astronauts.
But one senior American official said that while there might be concrete "progress" in some fields, "this visit is about the personal relationship [and] the alliance relationship" with France.
"There are enormous opportunities to cooperate between the Biden administration and the Macron government," said Martin Quencez, deputy director of the Paris office of thinktank GMF.
"But for various reasons, cooperation and coordination haven't gone as far as one might imagine."
Australian submarines
The political temperature between Paris and Washington has calmed considerably in the 12 months since the US snatched a lucrative contract to supply Australia with submarines from France, and launched a new US-UK-Australia alliance dubbed AUKUS.
This visit could be seen as the capstone of US efforts to placate a NATO ally that is one of the strongest voices calling for European "strategic autonomy", said Celia Belin, a researcher at the Brookings Institution.
"The French aren't always easy to manage, but when the French and the Americans agree, that moves things forward a great deal."
War in Ukraine
As things stand, however, "we are not allies on the same page", one adviser to Macron told the French news agency AFP, adding that talks with Biden would be "challenging".
Despite his support for Kyiv, Macron's insistence on continuing to talk with Moscow throughout Russia's invasion of Ukraine has raised American hackles.
Another adviser told reporters last week that Macron would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin soon, but not until after his US visit.
The conversation comes as some US officials including Pentagon chief Mark Milley have raised the possibility of a negotiated peace.
Inflation Reduction Act
As the United States plans massive investments and subsidies under its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Europeans fear distorting effects on competition with their own firms in sectors like electric cars, batteries and clean energy.
Macron is expected to tell Biden that there is a "contradiction between an administration that constantly talks of alliances ... and at the same time takes a decision like the IRA that will impact allies' economies and industry", Quencez said.
As for US subsidies for domestic green technology companies, the official said they do not shut out EU competitors and that a "very constructive set of conversations" was underway on how to work together.
Macron is also expected to announce a fund to support French-language teaching on a later leg of his visit that will take him to New Orleans.
(with AFP)
