After the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed yesterday his American colleague Joe Biden on a state visit to Paris, during which the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as trade, were discussed, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
The two sides will work hard to prevent a regional escalation of the war between Israel and "Hamas" in Gaza, and will focus on easing tensions between the Jewish state and Hezbollah, Macron said at a joint press conference with Biden at the Elysee Palace.
"We are redoubling our common efforts to avoid regional escalation, in particular in Lebanon,", Macron said. "Hezbollah" is an Iran-backed Shiite group in Lebanon, Reuters points out.
The two leaders welcomed the rescue of four Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.
"We will not stop working until all the hostages come home and a ceasefire is achieved," Biden said.
The American president said that if Putin succeeds in his war in Ukraine, he will not stop there.
"This is about more than Ukraine. All of Europe will be threatened, but we will not allow that to happen," Biden said and added: "The United States stands firmly behind Ukraine. We stand behind Kyiv together with our allies. together with France".
The two leaders also discussed trade issues, particularly in light of the American Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law in August 2022.
"We would really like to move towards synchronization between our economies, between the US and European economies, in terms of regulations and levels of investment," Macron said.
The meeting between the two presidents ended with a gala dinner at the Elysee Palace with the participation of their wives, to which celebrities such as Pharrell Williams and John McEnroe, as well as businessmen, were invited.