The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken is in France on Tuesday, where he will discuss support for Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East with President Emmanuel Macron, his counterpart Stéphane Séjourné and with the French Minister of the Armed Forces. The American Secretary of State will first accompany the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu to Versailles, near Paris, on the site of Nexter, the subsidiary of the Franco-German group KNDS which produces the Caesar cannons delivered to Kiev. France, which organized a summit at the end of February to provoke
“a surge”
in favor of Ukraine, asked its allies to redouble their efforts to defeat Russia. Far ahead of France, the United States has been kyiv's main support since the Russian invasion in February 2022. But in Washington, a $60 billion military aid program intended for Ukraine has been blocked for months by the Republican opposition in Congress.
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Antony Blinken will then have lunch with his counterpart Stéphane Séjourné, who was in Cairo on Saturday to discuss the war in Gaza, and in Beijing on Monday where he called on China to send
“very clear messages to Russia”
.
“Obviously, China plays a key role in independence, respect for international law including the sovereignty of Ukraine
,” argued the French minister to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. With Antony Blinken, he will discuss
“the major international crises: the
Middle East
and the war in Ukraine, but also
Sudan
, ahead of the international conference that France will co-organize on April 15,”
indicated the French Ministry of Affairs. foreign. They will also discuss preparations for the NATO Summit which will take place in Washington in July.
“On Ukraine, the objective is the continuation and intensification of support”
in Kiev, underlined those around Stéphane Séjourné.
Unesco, NATO, European Union
The French minister will also address
“Franco-American cooperation on the next steps in the implementation of the initiatives decided at the February 26 meeting in Paris
,” the same source told AFP. At the end of February, heads of state and government meeting in Paris decided to work on several projects, including increasing munitions deliveries to Ukraine, cyber defense, mine clearance and even industrial arms production in Ukraine. At the end of their bilateral meeting, Stéphane Séjourné and Antony Blinken will hold a joint press conference. The American Secretary of State will then go to UNESCO where he is expected to express the United States' support for the United Nations during an interview with the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay.
“This visit underlines the place fully regained by the United States within UNESCO since their return nine months ago
,” declared a UNESCO diplomat to AFP, while the United States joined under Joe Biden the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that they had left under Donald Trump. At the end of the day, Antony Blinken will be received by Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée, where major international crises will be discussed again, we learned from the French presidency. Blinken will travel to Brussels on Wednesday to participate in a meeting with his NATO counterparts to mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Atlantic Alliance. On the sidelines of this meeting, he will also have a trilateral meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and the leaders of the European Union.