Biden met with Macron on Thursday and the main topics included China

U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron talk outside a restaurant in Washington on November 30, 2022. (Reuters)

U.S. President Joe Biden met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Thursday (December 1, 2022) as scheduled. The two sides are expected to discuss topics such as Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific.

U.S. and French officials said Iran’s nuclear program and security issues in Africa were also topics of discussion.

Macron is the first foreign leader to make a state visit to the United States in nearly two years as US president.

“If you look at what’s happening in Ukraine, what’s happening in the Indo-Pacific, and the tensions that China is provoking, France is actually playing a central role in all of these things,” Bryant, the White House national security spokesman, said. So President [Biden] felt it was right and appropriate for France to take the lead in a state visit. ”

Biden and his wife had dinner with the Macrons at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Macron cited one reason for the tension between France and the United States. In a meeting with some US lawmakers, he talked about the Inflation Reduction Act signed by Biden.

Macron pointed to provisions in the law that subsidize U.S.-made products, calling the measure a “super provocation” for European companies.

“I don’t want to provide a market for American products either, because I have the same products as yours,” he said. ”