French President Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will together visit the site of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral on Monday, devastated by a fire in 2019, the Elysée announced on Friday January 6.
Fumio Kishida is due to begin a tour of Europe and then North America in Paris on Monday to meet his counterparts from other G7 countries, of which Japan has taken over the presidency this year.
Emmanuel Macron and his host will go to Notre-Dame before a working dinner at the Elysée focused on the challenges of the G7 presidency and the "
exceptional partnership
" between the two countries.
"
Symbol of this common desire to rebuild in the face of adversity, this visit will make it possible to present the exceptional French know-how in terms of heritage
", noted the French presidency.
This is the first time that Emmanuel Macron has invited a foreign leader to the site, argued the presidency.
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Reopen the cathedral to the public in 2024
Reconstruction work on Notre-Dame is continuing actively with the aim of reopening the cathedral to the public in 2024. The President will also share "
all France's support for the Japanese presidency
" of the G7 and
his to the action of the G7 in support of Ukraine
" in the face of Russian aggression, indicated the Elysée.
The two leaders will provide an overview of bilateral cooperation in energy, defence, emerging technologies and culture.
They will also discuss their "
partnership in the Indo-Pacific space
", where France, with seven territories, intends to strengthen its ambitions and strategic cooperation.
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After Paris, Kishida will travel to Rome on January 10, to London on January 11 and to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, on January 12, before meeting US President Joe Biden on January 13 in Washington.
The next summit of the heads of state of the G7 countries is scheduled for May in Hiroshima (western Japan), a city devastated by the first atomic bombing in history in 1945.