PARIS (AP) – French President Emmanuel Macron held a low-key meeting Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, a delicate tip-fence around the fact that France is already a U.S. citizen. Has been elected as the President-elect. Election winner.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a loyalist of Trump, is greeted with zero fanfare at the President’s Elysee Palace, which in itself indicates how the Macron government is looking forward to the Biden era.
No press conference was held, depriving reporters of the opportunity to ask Macron’s office fees, his foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, or Pompeo, whether they were in the U.S. Discussed the contradictory interpretation of the election result. Unusually, Le Drian met Pompeo at the Elysee Palace, instead of his office fees.
Mron Cron’s office fee called Pompo’s stop a “courtesy” visit. The State Department said Pompeo and Macron were “discussing” global security, efforts to combat violent extremism, Iran’s destabilizing behavior and significant threats to Hezbollah’s malicious influence in Lebanon. It said Pompeo also stressed the importance of transatlantic alliance, NATO unity and countering China’s growing global influence.
Pompeo tweeted a photo of himself wearing a Stars and Stripes face mask in a meeting with “my good friend” Le Drian and said they had an “important discussion”.
He tweeted, “We can’t win when the US-France transatlantic relationship is strong.”
The State Department said Pompeo and Le Drian have covered a number of issues, including NATO for Lito and the Sahel region of Africa, stability efforts and our strong alliance in fighting the Chinese Communist Party’s malicious activity in Europe. The nature of the alleged activity was not detailed.
Yet, it is not clear why between the Pampo epidemics and so long, at a three-day stop in Paris, cases of coronavirus have been largely locked, as a result of low visibility.
Officials from Pompeo’s team said French officials had told them no access to the press was possible due to epidemic concerns.
Speaking instead of an “easy transition to a second Trump administration,” Pompeo appeared to be skeptical of Trump’s election defeat last week.”
Macron spoke by phone with Biden last week to congratulate him.
Before meeting Macron and Le Drian, Pompeo laid a wreath of red, white and blue flowers at the Hotel des Invalides, a memorial to the victims of terrorism.
The ceremony lasted about a minute.
“The United States is with France. We mourn for the victims, pray for their families and condemn in the strongest terms these heinous attacks against innocent French citizens. Pompeo tweeted.
From Paris Pompeo went to Turkey, where he would meet religious leaders in Istanbul but not government officials.
Senior State Department officials said the lack of official meetings in Turkey was due to issues scheduled in the short term. They said meetings had been called, but Turkish officials were unable to reach Istanbul from the Ankara capital during Pompeo’s time. Officials noted that Pompeo and his Turkish counterpart plan to see each other at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in early December.
Pompeo’s stop in Turkey will focus on promoting religious freedom and fighting religious persecution, a key priority for the U.S. administration, officials said. Pompeo will discuss the evangelism with Constantinople Bartholomew I, considered the “equal equivalent first” in the Orthodox world, with Ecumenical patriarchy, and evangelism with Turkish principal Paul Russell.
The next stop of the tour will include a visit to Israeli settlements in the West Bank that have been avoided by previous state secretaries.
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The report is co-authored by Matthew Lee in Washington and John Leicester in Paris.
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