Secretary Antony J. Blinken and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian Before Their Meeting

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian

Paris, France

Quai d’Orsay

FOREIGN MINISTER LE DRIAN:  (In French.)

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  (In French.)  It’s been a while since my January (inaudible).  So I’m especially pleased to be back.  And I think it’s an important opportunity for us to pursue the very good work that France and the United States are doing together during these weeks and these months.  We were together at the G7, NATO, indirectly at the U.S.-EU summit.  We’ve been working very closely together these few months, and of course we had a very productive meeting between President Biden and President Macron on the margins of the meeting of the G7.

So it’s a very long and strong agenda, and I think we bring exactly the same perspective to bear, which is that there is a very imperative message in working together to meet the challenges of this moment that are really having an impact on the lives of our citizens.  Neither of us can do this alone.  We are so much stronger and more effective when we’re working together.  And President Biden is extremely grateful for and (inaudible) partnership that we have with France.  Working together we have an opportunity to demonstrate that our democracies can deliver real results for our people and the people of the world, and I’m grateful to be able to work with you in that context.  So thank you for hosting us.