Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden marked the start of the US president’s official state visit to France with a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe.
The event followed the leaders’ presence at commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy on Thursday.
The two leaders are expected to discuss Ukraine, the war in Gaza, global security and the strengthening of Nato, and policy issues including the climate crisis and naval cooperation.
An Élysée source said Macron and Biden had a warm relationship and cited the fact the US president was spending five days in France as evidence of the importance he attributed to the visit.
In Paris on Saturday, the leaders oversaw the placing of a large wreath at the flame of the unknown soldier underneath the Arc de Triomphe before a minute’s silence. Afterwards, Biden’s vehicle was accompanied back down the Champs-Élysée by the mounted Republican Guard.
The two leaders were due to hold official talks before a state banquet for the US president and his wife at the Élysée on Saturday evening.
At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, both presidents welcomed the return of four hostages rescued by the Israeli army in Gaza.
“We won’t stop working until all the hostages come home and a ceasefire is reached,” Biden said.
He also said the US would continue to support Ukraine and reiterated his warning that if Russia triumphed “Putin would not just stop at Ukraine. All of Europe would be threatened.”
On Thursday during his visit to Normandy for the D-day commemorations, Biden said the US and its allies “will not bow down” and they would “stand for freedom”.
“To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable,” Biden said in a speech at the American cemetery in Normandy. “If we were to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.
“We will not walk away because, if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated and it will not end there. Ukraine’s neighbours will be threatened, all of Europe will be threatened,” the US president added, describing Vladimir Putin as a “tyrant bent on domination”.
He said: “There are things that are worth fighting and dying for. Freedom is worth it. Democracy is worth it.”
Kyiv has been urging Europe to increase its military support for Ukraine after Russian advances in recent months, particularly in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region.
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On Friday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, warned the French parliament that 80 years after D-day, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 meant Europe was “unfortunately no longer a continent of peace”.
He said there could be no peace in Ukraine based on current battle lines. “Can this war end on the lines that exist now? No. Because there are no lines for evil: not 80 years ago, not now. And if someone tries to draw temporary lines, it will only give a pause before a new war.”
Max Bergmann, a former US state department official who leads European research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Associated Press that the relationship between the two countries was strong despite occasional disagreements.
“There’s always tension in Franco-American relations, because the French try to do stuff,” he said. “They’re bold, they throw up proposals and that leads to some friction when we push back.”
He cited Macron’s suggestion that the west could send military trainers to Ukraine, saying this had the “potential to be escalatory and dangerous”.
He said the French president “pushes the boundaries and throws up ideas”.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said earlier this week: “France is … our oldest and one of our deepest allies. And this will be an important moment to affirm that alliance and also look to the future and what we have to accomplish together.”
After Saturday night’s dinner for 270 guests, Biden will travel to the American cemetery at Bois Belleau 54 miles east of Paris on Sunday to pay tribute to soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force killed in the second world war before flying back to the US.