The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Joe Biden marked the start of the US president’s official state visit to France with a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe.
The event followed the leaders’ presence at commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy on Thursday.
The presidents are expected to discuss Ukraine, the war in Gaza, global security and the strengthening of Nato, and policy issues including the climate crisis and naval cooperation.
An Élysée source said Macron and Biden had a warm relationship and cited the fact the US president is spending five days in France as evidence of the importance he attributes to the visit.
The presidents rekindled the flame of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
View image in fullscreen
The presidents rekindled the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/Reuters
In Paris on Saturday, the leaders oversaw the placing of a large wreath at the flame of the unknown soldier underneath the Arc de Triomphe before a minute’s silence.
Afterwards, Biden’s vehicle was accompanied back down the Champs-Élysée by the mounted Republican Guard.
The two leaders will hold official talks and share a working lunch before a state banquet for the US president and his wife at the Élysée on Saturday evening.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy shakes hands with Joe Biden behind their countries flags
Joe Biden apologises to Zelenskiy for delay in US military support
Read more
On Thursday during his visit to Normandy for the D-day commemorations, Biden reiterated America’s support for Ukraine and said the US and its allies “will not bow down” and they would “stand for freedom”.
“To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable,” Biden said in a speech at the American cemetery in Normandy. “If we were to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.”
“We will not walk away because, if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated and it will not end there. Ukraine’s neighbours will be threatened, all of Europe will be threatened,” the US president added, describing the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as a “tyrant bent on domination”.
“There are things that are worth fighting and dying for,” Biden said. “Freedom is worth it. Democracy is worth it.”
Kyiv has been urging Europe to increase its military support for Ukraine after Russian advances in recent months, particularly in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region.
On Friday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, warned French parliament that, 80 years after D-day, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 meant Europe was “unfortunately no longer a continent of peace”.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave a joint press conference with Emmanuel Macron on Friday. Photograph: Eric Tschaen-Pool/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock
He said there could be no peace in Ukraine based on current battle lines. “Can this war end on the lines that exist now? No. Because there are no lines for evil: not 80 years ago, not now. And if someone tries to draw temporary lines, it will only give a pause before a new war.”
Max Bergmann, a former US state department official who leads European research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Associated Press that the relationship between the two countries is strong despite occasional disagreements.
“There’s always tension in Franco-American relations, because the French try to do stuff,” he said. “They’re bold, they throw up proposals and that leads to some friction when we push back.”
He cited Macron’s suggestion the west could send military trainers to Ukraine suggesting this had the “potential to be escalatory and dangerous”.
He said the French president “pushes the boundaries and throws up ideas”.
“France is … our oldest and one of our deepest allies. And this will be an important moment to affirm that alliance and also look to the future and what we have to accomplish together,” Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, told reporters earlier this week.
The Guardian