CNN said that the White House stated that the Bidens gave Macron a custom-made mirror. The wood around the mirror came from the wood in the White House courtyard. The entire mirror is a replica of a mirror in the West Wing of the White House. Biden also presented Macron with a vinyl record containing the works of many American musicians and a copy of the patent file of the first phonograph invented by American inventor Thomas Edison in 1877. Jill Biden gave Macron’s wife a pendant necklace designed by a French-American designer.
Regarding this meeting between the leaders of the United States and France, according to Agence France-Presse, Macron is the first French president to be invited to pay state visits to the United States twice, which is a rare "honor." However, CNN previously stated that officials from both countries expected that the visit would not yield significant results. On December 1, local time, when US President Biden met with visiting French President Macron, he expressed his willingness to "fine-tune" the US "Inflation Reduction Act" due to the strong dissatisfaction of France and Europe, but did not specify specific measures.
Extended reading:
Experts: Biden welcomed Macron with rare specifications and explained the problems between the two countries
Direct news: Regarding French President Macron’s response to the United States What do you think of the warm and grand welcome received by the Biden administration during the state visit?
Special commentator Liu Heping: Indeed, this is the first time since Biden took office as President of the United States that he has received a foreign leader with the highest diplomatic courtesy. No other leader who has visited the United States before has done so. Opportunity to enjoy such high-level treatment.
However, as the saying goes, the content is not enough to make up the form. Meetings between truly good friends and exchanges of visits between truly friendly countries, such as when the leaders of Japan and the United Kingdom visit the United States, do not require so many courtesies and etiquette. The more grandly the Biden administration welcomes Macron, the more it shows that there are problems between France and the United States.
So, where is the problem? I think, to be honest, on the most fundamental issues, that is, on ideology, values ??and security concepts, not only do they not conflict, but they are standing in the same trench. So we can see that when Biden first took office, he focused his diplomatic work on the European continent, raised the banner of ideology and values ????to the European continent, and at the same time sounded the "same containment" policy to the European continent. "China" rallying cry, in this regard, the entire European continent, including France, or the European Union, immediately chose sides and followed suit. Otherwise, the EU will not make irresponsible remarks against China on so-called human rights issues, the China-EU Investment Agreement that was finally negotiated will not be shelved, and European countries will not follow suit on 5G base station construction and chip issues. The pace of U.S. sanctions against China. On the security level, when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out, the entire European Union followed the United States in providing a large amount of military assistance to Ukraine, and at the same time imposed severe economic and financial sanctions on Russia, even cutting off the ties between Russia and Europe at the risk of cutting off their own strength. natural gas trade among.
In other words, the problems between the EU, headed by France, and the United States are not about ideology and security issues, but about actual national interests, or money. problem. And this is mainly reflected in three things. One is that when the EU responded to the call of the United States and implemented energy sanctions and blockades on Russia, American energy companies were taking advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune from the disaster, with prices four times higher than the market. Second, the EU is not willing to blindly follow the United States in a trade war and technology war with China, because economic exchanges with China are crucial to the EU; third, France and the EU are even more angry. , when the EU cooperated with the US's economic sanctions against China, the US introduced the "Inflation Reduction Act", but took the opportunity to harm EU companies. From this we can see that the relationship between the European Union, headed by France, and the United States has fallen into an embarrassing state of "talking about feelings and ideals hurts money, and talking about money hurts feelings and ideals."
Zhi News: In your opinion, will the United States eventually make compromises with the European Union headed by France on the level of national interests? If the Biden administration refuses to compromise, will the EU, led by France, have the ability to counterattack the United States?
Special commentator Liu Heping: I think that in order to appease the emotions of Macron and France, it is not ruled out that the Biden administration will touch Macron’s head and give France a candy. That is, in "Inflation" The Reduction Act provides some limited care for French companies. However, although France has been the most violent in recent years on anti-American and anti-NATO issues, including Macron’s proposal to make the EU the other pole of the world besides the United States, and to establish a European Army to get rid of military dependence on NATO Wait, but in the long run and fundamentally, it is impossible for the United States to make substantive concessions to the European Union headed by France. The reason behind this is that neither France nor the European Union has much strength or capital to challenge the United States, while the United States has many cards in hand to check and balance the European Union.
First of all, in the past few years, while the United States has been wooing the EU, it has also formed a new circle or started a new effort to check and balance the EU. A typical manifestation of this is that it has further strengthened the role of the Five Eyes Alliance, which is based on the Anglo-Saxon people and includes the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, and especially alienated the relationship between the United Kingdom, Australia, and the European continent. The United States encouraged the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, formed a trilateral military alliance among the United States, Britain and Australia, and asked Australia to tear up its submarine contract with France and cooperate with the United States and Britain to produce nuclear-powered submarines. These are all landmark events.
Secondly, the United States has also implemented the strategy of "using Europe to control Europe" within the EU. Because within Europe, those who advocate pro-China and pro-Russia and advocate that the EU should be independent of the United States are traditional European powers led by France, Germany and Italy. However, after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Central and Eastern European countries are concerned about security and ideological issues. concerns and had serious differences with traditional European powers. The Biden administration has made full use of this opportunity to support the claims of Central and Eastern European countries, which has expanded conflicts within the EU and forced France, Germany, Italy and other countries to accommodate the claims of the United States because they are worried about the split of the EU, thus raising security issues. It was placed in an unusually prominent position, overshadowing the claims of countries such as France, Germany and Italy to get rid of US control and their desire to develop economic and trade relations with China and Russia.
Then the other thing is that the United States has also fully grasped and exploited the contradictions between the government and the people within the EU and various European countries. That is, the government advocates pro-Russian and pro-China economic development, while the people are fighting in the United States. The contradiction between the ideological card and the rise of right-wing sentiment after the Russia-Ukraine conflict has come to manipulate the EU and European governments. This is why the European Parliament and European parliaments continue to push their governments down a radical path.
I believe that these three measures taken by the United States, coupled with global inflation and the Russia-Ukraine conflict in recent years, have also caused a large amount of European capital to flee to the United States, resulting in European fiscal constraints, which have also weakened the This has improved the EU's ability to counter the United States, led by France.
Finally, I would like to remind everyone that although expressing dissatisfaction with the US "Inflation Reduction Act" is the most important purpose of Macron's visit to the United States. However, we have seen that Macron’s stance and realm are not high when dealing with this issue. Logically speaking, the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act violates the market rules of free trade and fair competition and should be repealed. However, Macron only requires that when the United States implements the Inflation Reduction Act, it can benefit the European Union. Especially French companies. In other words, Macron believes that the United States can continue to use the "Inflation Reduction Act" to discriminate against companies in other countries, including China, as long as it is open to the EU, especially France. This once again proves that although there are frictions between France and the United States on trade and even national interests, in essence, they are still on the same side. At the same time, this limitation in mind and vision is also an important reason why the European Union, led by France, cannot defeat the United States.