Diplomacy: President Macron returns to the US this week

Emmanuel Macron will travel to Washington this week for his second state visit, an “honor” he hopes to use to push his diplomatic appeal on the war in Ukraine and raise his voice against American protectionism.

Americans will do everything to prevent the slightest friction or a fresh little statement from tarnishing the first state visit organized by Joe Biden. On Thursday, the French president will be entitled to all the pomp and honors of such a reception, with cannon shots, a gala dinner and chats in front of the fireplace in the famous Oval Office.

John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, on Monday praised this “dynamic” French president whose country, a nuclear power, is “at the center” of all global issues, whether it be the war in Ukraine or the Rise of China. Joe Biden “considered that it was really the most relevant country” to organize the first state visit since taking office, concluded the adviser.

In 2018, Donald Trump invited his younger counterpart for a highly publicized meeting. This will be less so: Emmanuel Macron is no longer a novelty, and the Democratic octogenarian fascinates less than the Republican billionaire. But Paris isn’t sulking at his pleasure, before a trip that will begin Tuesday evening in Washington, and then take the French president to New Orleans.

It is “an honor that is done to France more than to any other European country”, rejoices us, from the French side. Everything will be done to resolve a recent French-American crisis, with solemn declarations and more intimate exchanges also involving the wives of the two presidents, Jill Biden and Brigitte Macron.

It got off to a bad start between Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron: in September 2021, Washington’s announcement of the AUKUS alliance with Australia and the United Kingdom aroused the ire of Paris, deprived of a mega-submariner contract with Canberra. But also upset at being sidelined in a key region, the ‘Indo-Pacific’.

This visit, “is a bit like the tail of the AUKUS comet” and the rapprochement started since then, Célia Belin, visiting researcher at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told AFP. According to her, the Americans have an interest in maintaining a close link with this ally which supports Europe’s “strategic autonomy”. “The French aren’t always easy to deal with, but when the French and the Americans reach an agreement, a lot of progress is made.”

Beyond the protocol, the Elysee therefore hopes for a “demanding” dialogue. “We are not aligned allies,” observes a presidential adviser. First about Ukraine. Since the Russian invasion, Emmanuel Macron has been playing some music that has long annoyed his American partner: total support for Kyiv, but also dialogue with Moscow so that, when the Ukrainians decide, the war will end “around the negotiating table”.

The French head of state continues to reconcile this diplomat “at the same time” by organizing a conference in Paris on December 13 in support of Ukraine’s civil resistance, promising to speak again, “in the next few days”, to Vladimir Putin.

But Washington appears to be moving towards that position as its chief of staff, General Mark Milley, has hinted at a possible window of opportunity for negotiations. But Emmanuel Macron also wants a “resynchronization” of the economic response, on both sides of the Atlantic, to the crisis caused by the conflict and, more generally, in terms of ecological transition and competition with China.

On this last point, crucial for Joe Biden who sees his main foreign policy axis in rivalry with Beijing, a senior White House official acknowledged that the positions of Americans and Europeans were not “identical”, but that they all shared the willingness to “play a common score in response to China.”