Manuel Balce Senator/AP
President Joe Biden speaks about the executive order in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, June 4, 2024, in Washington.
Paris
CNN
—
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Paris on Wednesday for a trip marking the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, taking part in a state visit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
But the immediate challenge will be much loftier as Biden seeks to strengthen ties with transatlantic allies as Europe faces a re-emerging Russia in Ukraine, a looming Chinese threat and the risk of an election that could upend the current geopolitical order.
“Biden truly believes we are at a turning point in history,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “This has to do with shifts in geopolitics and the challenges that are presented to us around the world.”
In Normandy, President Biden and other Western leaders will speak about the special challenges that Allied forces faced on June 6, 1944, the largest seaborne military invasion in history, which resulted in more than 10,000 casualties and marked a defining moment in the war against Nazi Germany. This year’s anniversary will be the last major commemoration witnessed by Normandy landings veterans, many of whom are approaching 100 years old.
Speaking Friday from Pointe du Hoc, on the Utah coast between Omaha and where U.S. troops landed, Biden plans to speak about the power of democracy and draw on vivid images from that day to talk about the men who gave their lives in the cause of democracy.
“It’s important that we be clear today about what we stand for and what we stand against,” Kirby said, acknowledging the importance of Europe strengthening U.S. leadership. Biden “recognizes that no matter how powerful we are and how much good we can do, we need help.”
The president will arrive in France on Wednesday morning and travel to Normandy on Thursday to take part in ceremonies marking the anniversary of the Normandy landings. After his speech at Pont-du-Hoc on Friday, Biden will be feted with a state visit from French President Emmanuel Macron. The visit will return a favor Biden offered the French president in 2022. The visit is famous in U.S. military history as the site where Army Rangers bravely scaled a 100-foot cliff to neutralize German artillery fire on the shore.
Macron has been one of the main leaders of the European response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. France has announced it will double its defense budget, exceeding NATO’s 2% defense spending threshold, and has restarted domestic production of critical military materials. In April, Macron visited the Yurenko factory, which makes explosives after years of outsourcing production.
“Today, the question of peace and war on our continent, and of whether we can guarantee our own security, has been answered,” Macron said in a recent speech.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while in Normandy and plans to meet again on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy next week.
The visit came at a critical time in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when Russia began using Western weapons to attack targets inside Russia for the first time. Ukraine had been pleading with Washington for months for permission to attack targets inside Russian territory with U.S. weapons, as it launched heavy air and ground attacks on Kharkiv, safe in the knowledge that its troops could withdraw to Russian territory to regroup and that their arsenals would not be hit by Western weapons.
Biden quietly gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use these weapons, while Macron openly voiced his support for the move.
“Ukrainian territory is being attacked from Russian bases. If we tell them not to attack the points from which the missiles are fired, then how do we explain to the Ukrainian people that they must defend these towns and everything they see now around Kharkiv?” Markon said last week during a visit to Meseberg Castle in Brandenburg, Germany.
“We believe that we should allow Ukraine to neutralise the military installations from which the missiles were fired, and essentially the military installations that were attacked,” Macron continued.
The French leader has been one of the most vocal supporters of the Ukrainian cause in Europe and has not ruled out the possibility of sending French military trainers to Ukraine to help with the Kiev fight.
But ultimately the United States will bear much of the cost of Ukraine’s defense.
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, the United States has sent $175 billion to Ukraine, more than the $171 billion in current dollars the U.S. sent to 16 European countries for reconstruction after World War II.
In contrast, European Union member states have provided Ukraine with a total of $53 billion in direct financial aid and $35 billion in military aid.
The World Bank estimates that rebuilding Ukraine will cost more than $500 billion, and the war is not over yet.
Finding the funds to pay for that capacity may be difficult. European Union countries consistently spend more than they tax, and governments borrow to cover the costs. The United States has a higher overall deficit and debt level, but its economy and population are growing more rapidly.
Still, Macron has pledged to continue supporting Zelenskiy, promising more military aid last month “in the coming days and weeks.”
CNN’s Jesse Gretner, Mariya Knight and Joseph Ataman contributed to this report.
