
“The key message for this meeting is the importance of this relationship and the fact that US-French partnership matters to the world,” a senior administration official said of the Harris-Macron meeting.
The senior administration official said the Biden administration is “forward-looking” in its relationship with France and that Harris will look to strengthen French-American cooperation “in concrete ways,” though the official declined to say specifically how Harris would seek to improve the relationship.
The official said Harris and Macron plan to have a “wide-ranging discussion across a range of issues to include the bilateral relationship, European security, the Indo-Pacific, global health, space and a number of other subjects.”
A second senior official said Harris’ remarks at the Paris Peace Forum on November 11 — which will focus this year on global health and post-Covid recovery — will address “big, converging global crises” with a focus on “the challenge of rising inequality and the need for leaders around the world to join together and take bold action.”
Harris will join Macron and other world leaders for a dinner following the forum.
She is set to arrive in Paris on Tuesday and return to the US the following Saturday.
Harris will visit the Suresnes American Cemetery, just outside of Paris, on the eve of Veterans Day and participate in an Armistice Day ceremony the following day, visits intended to demonstrate “the years that France and the United States have stood together, our shared values and our commitment to continue doing the right things together around the world,” the first senior administration official said.
“The vice president is attending to show US support for the Libyan people as they work to reestablish their sovereignty and establish lasting peace,” the second senior administration official said. “We want to show our support for the Libyan people as they move towards national elections and as they focus on the importance of the withdrawal of foreign forces and mercenaries and fighters.”
The official said Harris will also express “deep concern for human rights and the situation of migrants and refugees.”