The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, arrives this Tuesday, April 2, in the French capital, where he will hold a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron. The two are scheduled to discuss the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip. Washington and Paris are two of the governments that lead the West's support for kyiv against Moscow's invasion, which began more than two years ago. Faced with the war on Gazan soil, the parties agree on the call for the delivery of humanitarian aid, but Paris insists on a permanent and not provisional ceasefire, as the Joe Biden Administration has supported.
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The highest representative of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, arrives in France with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza as a fundamental part of the official visit.
The United States is the largest supporter of weapons to Ukraine. From the start of the war and until January 2024, The United States has given more than $75 billion to Ukraine. Of them, more than 44 billion dollars were allocated to military assistance.
But a new $60 billion aid package remains stalled in Congress.
France, for its part, is among the main military suppliers to Ukraine, which faces a critical shortage of military equipment and troops while stopping an avalanche of Russian attacks.
Read alsoTwo years of conflict: these are the keys that mark the course of the war in Ukraine
Blinken will meet with Macron to discuss growing international crises. In addition to the meeting with the president, the US secretary will hold a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Sejourne, the Elysee Palace confirmed to the AFP news agency.
This official visit comes after Paris held an international conference last February, in an attempt to obtain financial and military support for the nation invaded by Russian troops. The results will be reviewed by Blinken and the French leaders at this meeting, the same sources announced.
Both sides want to “intensify” support for Ukraine, said a member of Sejourne's entourage.
Likewise, in a symbolic visit, Blinken would accompany French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu to a factory near Paris of the Franco-German defense group KNDS, which produces artillery weapons used in Ukraine.
France calls for permanent ceasefire in Gaza
Although the United States, Israel's main ally, has advocated in recent months to stop a ground incursion into Rafah – the city at the southern end of Gaza, where most of the internally displaced population is located – it continues to allege the “right to the defense” of Israel against the Hamas group and has been supplying weapons to the Jewish-majority state during the ongoing war.
Paris and Washington agree on the urgent need for humanitarian aid to enter the enclave that faces the risk of widespread famine, as the United Nations and the European Union have warned.
But France, unlike the US Government, calls for a comprehensive ceasefire, not a provisional one, as the Joe Biden Administration has indicated.
On March 25, Washington stopped blocking the approval of a resolution in the UN Security Council that demands an immediate cessation of hostilities, when it abstained from voting on a text promoted by Algeria and which had the support of China and Russia, nations with the right to veto, like the first power.
However, in clear defiance of the call of the international community, the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu continues its attacks and emphasizes that it will not stop until it fulfills its declared objective of “eliminating” the Islamist group.
But the majority of fatalities are civilians, including thousands of children.
Blinken's official visit to France takes place after his sixth tour of the Middle East, last March, in an attempt to achieve a second truce between Hamas and the Israeli Army. A matter still unsuccessful, despite rounds of talks through mediators: Egypt, Qatar and the United States.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that Sejourne and Blinken They will also discuss preparations for a NATO summit in Washington, next July.as well as the “crises” in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.
With AFP and Reuters
