National Security
Reports
Robert Kagan
Stephen & Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, Project on International Order and Strategy
Thomas Wright
Director - Center on the United States and Europe
Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Project on International Order and Strategy
The vice president is basically a part of this charm operation that the United States implemented towards France in the past month and a half [...] The vice president's visit is sort of the last straw of this procession of high-level American officials who who are coming, passing by Paris or meeting with the French in order to remind everybody that they value the French-American relationship, that they value the bilateral relationship in the context of Europe.
[The October 29 bilateral meeting between Biden and Macron] will be the occasion to make some announcements and to see whether or not [... the AUKUS] crisis was the occasion to define [...] a new common agenda, or if there are sort of long, lingering issues that cannot be addressed. [... The meeting is] highly anticipated on the French side. I wonder if it's highly anticipated on the other side. [... The dynamic is] a reflection of the imbalance in a relationship. [...] One is the superpower. The other one is this strong middle power. But you have an imbalance. And for France, having a good relationship, or having a clear relationship, with the U.S. — it's also a condition, for instance, for influence in Europe.
