PARIS -- President Donald Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France met Saturday, seeking to restore a relationship that started out friendly but soured in recent months after the American leader's complaints that Europe is taking advantage of a century-old trans-Atlantic alliance.
The visit got off to a testy start when Trump posted a message Friday on Twitter assailing Macron just three minutes after Air Force One touched down at Orly Airport outside Paris.
On Saturday, Macron reassured Trump that Macron's call last week for a "true European army" to defend against Russia, China and even the United States was actually in harmony with the American president's insistence that NATO allies pick up more of the burden of mutual security efforts.
"I do share President Trump's views that we need much better burden-sharing within NATO, and that's why I do believe my proposals for European defense are utterly consistent with that," Macron said with Trump at his side at the Elysee Palace.
Trump, who has bitterly assailed European allies for not spending more on defense, said he was glad to hear Macron say that. "He understands the United States can only do so much, in fairness to the United States," Trump said.
The American and French leaders, who have had an up-and-down relationship, told reporters that they are good friends. They then went into private talks at the Elysee Palace. It was Trump's first stop on a weekend trip to Paris where dozens of world leaders were gathering to commemorate today's 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
Trump had been scheduled Saturday to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery at Belleau Wood in France but canceled because of rainy weather that grounded the presidential helicopter. The president was criticized for not finding a way to get to the cemetery, which is about a two-hour drive east of Paris.
The cemetery contains the graves of 2,288 soldiers, including many Americans killed in fighting in the area in 1918. The names of 1,060 more Americans listed as missing and whose bodies were not recovered are engraved on the walls of the site.
In Trump's place, the White House sent a delegation to the cemetery that included his Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser under former President Barack Obama, noted that he helped plan Obama's foreign travel throughout Obama's two terms and that it was common to have a backup plan to deal with inclement weather.
"There is always a rain option. Always," he wrote in a tweet. "Trump will use the U.S. military for a pre election political stunt but sits in his hotel instead of honoring those who fought and died for America."
On Saturday, Macron welcomed Trump to the presidential palace on a drizzly, dreary day that matched the mood of the moment. Their encounter seemed decidedly chillier than their warm session in Washington earlier in the year when they smiled broadly, hugged and lavished praise on each other.
Responding to comments that Macron made last week suggesting that Europe needed to form its own army to defend itself even against the United States, Trump wrote: "Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly!"
Macron's office said Trump had misunderstood the French leaders' comments, lumping together two different ideas. Macron had said in an interview that Europe needs to protect itself against cyberthreats and the "interference in our democracies" from "China, Russia and even the United States."
Later, he made the case that Europe needs to build up its own military because it can no longer depend on the U.S. for defense.
Ahead of their bilateral meeting at the Elysee Palace, Macron attempted to soothe Trump by stressing publicly that European nations in the NATO alliance should pay more to defend themselves.
Calling Trump "my good friend," Macron proclaimed "great solidarity" between the two nations and said the leaders would discuss a litany of issues during their one-on-one meeting this weekend, including Iran, Syria, Yemen, trade and climate change.
Trump returned Macron's warm tone, telling the French leader that we "have become very good friends" and that the two countries "have much in common in many ways."
"I appreciate what you're saying about burden-sharing. You know my view," Trump said. Later, he added: "We want to help Europe, but it has to be fair."
Beyond security, the biggest points of contention between the United States and France right now are the renewed U.S. sanctions against Iran and the threats against French companies doing business in Tehran.
Businesspeople and Macron's officials have expressed anger over the threats. The French want to continue to do business with Iran and resent being put under pressure by Americans.
Trump remains unpopular in France, and Macron, after making efforts to cozy up to Trump, has in the past several months shown signs of distancing himself. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September, Macron argued cooperation between nations that seemed to be a direct rebuke to Trump's unilateralism.
Trump is to spend about 48 hours on the ground but will have the chance to interact with other world leaders at several events hosted by Macron, including potentially President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
Today Trump is to join about 70 world leaders for a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe to commemorate the armistice that ended World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Afterward, he is to join the leaders for lunch and then separately head to the Suresnes American Cemetery outside Paris before leaving for home in the afternoon.
He is not to stay for the Paris Peace Forum, a gathering that Macron is inaugurating to bring together governments and private organizations to improve international coordination and find ways to avoid the sort of tensions that led to World War I and other conflicts.
The White House cited a scheduling conflict, saying the president instead will attend a Veterans Day ceremony to pay respects to U.S. soldiers who died on French soil.
OLD FOES, NOW FRIENDS
The leaders of former enemies France and Germany, in an intimate gesture that underscored their countries' current roles as guarantors of peace in Europe, held their heads together Saturday at the site north of Paris where the defeated Germans and the Allies signed the agreement that ended the 1914-18 war.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Macron then went inside a replica of the train car where the armistice was reached and put their names in a guestbook.
"Our Europe has been at peace for 73 years. There is no precedent for it, and it is at peace because we willed it, and first and foremost because Germany and France wanted it," he said.
Merkel was equally convinced of the power their friendship exudes.
"The will is there, and I say this for Germany with full conviction, to do everything to achieve a more peaceful order in the world even though we know we have very, very much work still ahead of us," she said.
Merkel's appearance in Compiegne marked how her nation's bloodstained history with France has become a close alliance that is now the driving force behind the European Union.
Across the line that once marked the Western Front, leaders lauded the courage of soldiers who were killed during the unprecedented slaughter. The leaders then converged on Paris for a dinner.
At the dinner, Macron warned world leaders against taking peace for granted, saying "we will talk about this peace that our predecessors tried to construct 100 years ago but failed to preserve, because 20 years later a new war broke out."
At dawn Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went to Vimy Ridge, the battlefield in northern France where Canada defeated German opposition against great odds.
Standing among the white headstones under an ashen sky, Trudeau addressed the fallen, saying what Canada has achieved in the past century has been "a history built on your sacrifice. You stand for the values on which Canada was built."
Information for this article was contributed by Peter Baker and Adam Nossiter of The New York Times; by Jill Colvin, Darlene Superville, Angela Charlton, Jonathan Lemire, Deb Riechmann, Raf Casert and John Leicester of The Associated Press; and by David Nakamura, Seung Min Kim and James McAuley of The Washington Post.
A Section on 11/11/2018