US: On Thursday, US President Joe Biden hosted French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House. Macron’s second trip to the United States since becoming president of France in 2017.
The meeting’s most important concern was the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as well as US subsidies to European countries, which Macron described as “very aggressive.”
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Both leaders hold Russia accountable for atrocities
Though President Biden sought to depict rosy relations with Europe, the two leaders appeared to have different words for starting a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Let me choose my words very carefully,” Biden told a news conference with Macron. “I’m prepared to speak with Mr Putin if, in fact, there is an interest in him deciding he’s looking for a way to end the war. He hasn’t done that yet.”
While Macron appeared more open to conversations with President Putin, he stated that he would continue to speak with Putin to “attempt to prevent escalation and to get some very specific results,” such as nuclear plant safety.
Both leaders, however, stated that they were determined to holding Russia accountable for “widely recorded atrocities and war crimes committed by both its regular military forces and its proxies.”
Controversial US Subsidies
President Macron expressed reservations about President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a bill that provides substantial subsidies to US products in order to combat the climate catastrophe.
“France did not come here to ask for some kind of exception for its economy. We came to share how the consequences of this regulation impact us,” the news agency Reuters cited President Macron as saying.
European officials say Biden’s August legislative package is unfair to non-American businesses and would be a heavy blow to their economies as Europe deals with the aftermath from Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.
European officials argue that the bill discourages non-US companies and will further destabilise Europe’s economy, which is already in free fall following the invasion of Ukraine.
According to media sources, the Biden administration may be searching for methods to provide some relief for European partners through executive orders.
The relationship between France and the United States had taken a terrible turn after Australia cancelled a lucrative submarine deal with Paris in order to form a military alliance with the United States under AUKUS (Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) – reportedly on the US’s insinuation.
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