US Vice President Kamala Harris heads to Paris next week to deepen the reconciliation begun by President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, while also addressing pandemic response and attending a conference on Libya.
The five-day trip beginning November 9 "really signals the strength of our alliance," a senior administration official told reporters Thursday regarding the trip announced late last month.
Harris's transatlantic travel is the latest act in an elaborate diplomatic ballet that has featured Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan each visiting France in October to turn the page on the Australian submarine crisis that damaged ties.
Biden finally met with Macron on Friday in Rome where they shut the book on the quarrel, which erupted when Australia without warning tore up a multi-billion-dollar submarine contract with France in favor of a deal for US nuclear-powered vessels.
Harris will continue the fence-mending when she is received Wednesday by Macron at the Elysee Palace to discuss "the bilateral relationship, European security, the Indo-Pacific, global health" and other issues, AFP quoted another senior US official as saying.
As a sign of their "shared values," the official said Harris will participate on November 11 -- a US federal holiday honoring American veterans -- in ceremonies in France commemorating the 1918 Armistice ending World War I.
Officials also said Harris will also meet at the Pasteur Institute with US and French scientists working on Covid-19 -- in a nod to her Indian-born late mother, a scientist who conducted breast cancer research at the facility in the 1980s.
On November 12, Harris will represent Washington at an international conference on Libya where she aims to "show our support for the Libyan people as they move towards national elections," a US official said.
The vice president is also slated to participate in the Paris Peace Forum, a conference organized by Macron that focuses on global problem-solving.
