PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Joe Biden at Paris' Arc de Triomphe at the start of the US leader's state visit to France on Saturday as the two nations seek to tighten ties.
Biden has been in France since Wednesday and took part in this week's commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that changed the course of World War II.
During a welcome ceremony in Paris, Macron and Biden laid a wreath and rekindled the flame on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The two leaders were also due to walk down the Champs-Elysees.
Later Saturday Biden was due to meet Macron for talks at the Elysee Palace followed by a state banquet given in his honour, with Ukraine's battle against the Russian attack the dominant topic.
In a speech on a clifftop in northern France that was the scene of a bloody confrontation between US troops and occupying Germans on June 6, 1944, Biden on Friday had drawn parallels between D-Day and the present.
The president is set to face his Republican rival and predecessor Donald Trump later this year in presidential elections that commentators predict will subject US democracy to a severe test.
Biden invoked the ghosts of the heroes of the assault on the Pointe du Hoc, a clifftop promontory where German bunkers were attacked by US troops. No surviving veterans remain alive.
Biden's speech also came under the shadow of Russia's 2022 attack of Ukraine, which has left war again raging in Europe eight decades after the end of World War II.
President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier on Friday urged the West to do more to achieve a fair peace as Ukraine battles the Russian attack , telling Biden that Kyiv is counting on "shoulder-to-shoulder" support. Meeting Zelensky in Paris, Biden pledged his support for Ukraine and announced another $225 million in aid to Kyiv.
Zelensky thanked him for the "tremendous support", comparing it to the United States coming to Europe's aid during World War II.
After his own talks with Zelensky in Paris on Friday evening, Macron said he wanted to "finalise" the creation of a coalition of military instructors to train Ukrainian troops.
Macron also lashed out at what he called a "camp of pacifists" and the "spirit of defeat" over Ukraine's fight against Russia. — AFP
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