French President Emmanuel Macron went to Washington on Tuesday to discuss a range of issues with US counterpart Joe Biden, from aligning policy on Russia’s aggression. ukraine To ease trade disputes.
Macron, in a rare honor the first French leader to be invited for two US state visits, can look forward to another 21-gun salute and the lavish White House dinner that former President Donald Trump hosted in 2018 was.
His traveling entourage of foreign, defense and finance ministers, as well as business leaders and astronauts, shows the extent of transatlantic cooperation Paris hopes to pursue.
But a senior US official told AFP that although there may have been concrete “progress” in some areas, “this visit is about the personal relationship, the alliance relationship” with France.
“There are a lot of opportunities for cooperation between the Biden administration and the Macron government,” said Martin Quenage, deputy director of the Paris office of think-tank GMF.
“But for various reasons, cooperation and coordination have not gone as far as one might imagine”.
The tone between Paris and Washington has cooled since a year ago, when the United States snatched from under France’s nose a lucrative contract to supply submarines to Australia – and a new US-UK- in the Pacific. Australia launched a coalition, dubbed AUKUS, which excluded France.
Celia Bellin, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, said this week’s visit could be seen as a cornerstone of US efforts to placate the NATO ally, one of the strongest voices for European “strategic autonomy”.
“Managing the French isn’t always easy, but when the French and the Americans agree, it moves things along a lot.”
‘Not on the same page’
As things stand, however, “we are not allies on the same page,” an adviser to Macron told AFP, promising “challenging” talks with Biden.
Despite his support for Kyiv, Macron’s insistence on continuing talks with Moscow during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has drawn increased US hacks.
Another adviser told reporters last week that Macron would soon speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin – but not until after his US visit.
The talks come as some US officials, including Pentagon chief Mark Milley, have raised the possibility of a negotiated peace.
Putin’s war on the economy has also pitted France and the United States, intensifying existing disagreements over issues such as green change and competition with China.
Large-scale US arms deliveries to Ukraine – far ahead of EU joint efforts – have highlighted the country’s pre-eminence as an arms producer, while the Franco-German joint effort has faltered.
This could be further exposed if a divided US Congress refuses to grant the same level of aid to Kyiv from next year.
And as the United States plans massive investments and subsidies under its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Europeans may face a distorting effect on competition with their own firms in areas such as electric cars, batteries and clean energy. is afraid of.
Macron will tell Biden “there is a contradiction between an administration that constantly talks of alliances … and at the same time makes IRA-like decisions that will affect allies’ economies and industry,” said researcher Quencez.
A senior Biden administration official insisted on condition of anonymity that even with the disagreements, the transatlantic partnership remains strong.
On differences over more aggressive US policy toward China, the official said European views “are not identical, but I think there is a strong view that we should speak from a common script in response to China.”
With regard to US subsidies to domestic green technology companies, the official said they do not lock out EU competitors and that “a very constructive set of talks” were underway on how to work together.
EU subsidies coming?
Nevertheless, “we will not stand idly by” when the United States engages in perceived protectionism, Macron’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has said.
A joint statement from finance ministers in Berlin and Paris last week underlined the “urgent need for investment in Europe” to reduce energy dependence and tackle the climate and digital transition.
The communique was read by some observers as potentially the beginning of a wave of EU subsidies.
“China supports its products: America supports its products. It may be time for Europe to support its products,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France 3 radio on Sunday.
In the immediate term, Europeans are angered by the swinging prices they now have to pay for US exports of ship-borne liquefied natural gas – replacing cheaper Russian pipeline gas during the invasion of Ukraine.
France in particular has suffered a double energy blow as most of its fleet of nuclear power plants are offline for maintenance or because of exposed faults in their cooling systems.
With Luc Remont, the newly installed head of state-controlled energy firm EDF, on Macron’s plane to Washington, some support for the civilian nuclear industry could be on the cards.
Macron is expected to announce a fund to support French language teaching during the later leg of his trip that will take him to New Orleans.
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