Blinken in Europe next week: Libya and first visit to Paris on the menu

The head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken, barely returned from the European tour of Joe Biden, returns next week to Europe to the allies of the United States, with in particular his first visit to Paris where he will meet the French President Emmanuel Macron.

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The secretary of state will begin his trip to Berlin to attend the second international peace conference on Wednesday in Libya, which hopes to regain some stability after a decade of conflict with elections scheduled for December, US diplomacy said on Friday in a statement. communicated.

In Germany, he will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, herself expected at the White House in mid-July for the first in-person visit of a European leader to President Biden.

Both Germany and France have had tumultuous relations with former US President Donald Trump, and his successor has made reviving these alliances a priority.

Antony Blinken, who grew up partly in Paris and speaks fluent French, will then visit the French capital on June 25 Emmanuel Macron and his Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian. This is the highest-level visit by a member of the U.S. government since Joe Biden took office in January.

The Secretary of State will finally go to Italy with a heavy schedule: meeting with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio, with whom he will co-chair in Rome a meeting of the international coalition against the jihadists of the Islamic State group; visit to the Vatican; then meeting, on June 29 in Matera, in the south of the country, of the foreign ministers of the great powers of the G20, of which the two main rival countries of the United States, China and Russia, are members. On this occasion, he will "

" the world economy, "

", Said its spokesperson Ned Price in the press release.