Donald Trump to celebrate Bastille Day in France with Emmanuel Macron

Visit to France: Donald Trump will attend the Bastille Day celebrations with French President Emmanuel Macron
AFP/Getty Images
Francesca Gillett29 June 2017

Donald Trump has accepted President Emmanuel Macron’s invitation to celebrate Bastille Day in France.

The two world leaders, who met for the first time in May, will enjoy the French national holiday together on July 14, the White House announced.

The holiday commemorates the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison, where opponents of the monarchy had been detained. It marked a turning point in the French Revolution.

This year’s event will also be used to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the US entering into the First World War with US soldiers walking alongside French soldiers during the traditional Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysées.

French President Emmanuel Macron listening to US President Donald Trump before the G7 Summit in Sicily.
AFP/Getty Images

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the US leader is looking forward to reaffirming America's "strong ties of friendship”.

Hand of friendship: Theresa May and Donald Trump walk together at the White House. (Getty Images)
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Mr Spicer said the leaders will discuss cooperation on countering terrorism, as well as the economy and other issues.

France is the second biggest contributor to efforts fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, after the US.

President Trump is also scheduled to visit Europe shortly before Bastille Day, when he travels to Poland and Germany from July 5 to 8.

Separately on July 14, Macron will also visit Nice to mark the truck attack that day in 2016 that killed 86 people and injured hundreds in the resort town in the south of France. It is not known whether President Trump would join Macron in Nice.

Plans for the US President’s state visit to the UK appear to have been put on hold after it was omitted from this year’s Queen’s Speech.

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