Mr. Bernard Kouchner had made his first official visit to Washington beforehand on September 19-21, 2007, marking the exceptional relationship uniting the two countries.

The Prime Minister, guest of honour at the annual dinner of the American Jewish Committee, went to Washington on May 1 and 2, 2008, where he had meetings on the international financial situation.

Since May 2007, many American officials have followed one after the other to Paris: President Bush made an official visit from June 13-15, 2008. A few days after President Obama took office, the two Heads of State had a friendly telephone meeting, which led to substantial exchanges on major international topics. The two leaders had already met one-on-one during Mr. Sarkozy’s trip to Washington in September 2006, and again when Mr. Obama went to Paris on July 25, 2008. President Obama visited France for a bilateral meeting on April 3, 2009, as a prelude to the NATO Summit, which took place on April 3 and 4 in Strasbourg, Kehl and Baden-Baden. President Obama also came to France for the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 2009.

Since the new U.S. administration has been set up, the French President has had the chance to meet with Vice President Joe Biden in Munich, alongside a conference on security policy, as well as with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who represented the United States at the Donor Conference in Sharm-El-Sheikh on Gaza reconstruction.

Mr. Bernard Kouchner went to Washington on February 5, at the invitation of the Secretary of State, for a first working meeting with Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Kouchner also met with distinguished persons in the new administration, such as General James Jones, National Security Advisor, General Daniel Petraeus, Commander of the American Army, Ambassador George Mitchell, Special Envoy for the Middle East, and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Since the confirmation of the members of the U.S. Government, several ministers have gone to Washington D.C. for the first meetings with their counterparts: Mr. Jean-Louis Borloo, Minister of State, Minister of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Land-use Planning, Ms. Christine Lagarde, Minister of the Economy, Industry and Employment, Mr. Michel Barnier, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, and Mr. Hervé Morin, Minister of Defence. From a parliamentary standpoint, a friendship group, the French Caucus, created in 2003 in Congress, bringing together 100 members (21 senators and 79 representatives), is a special instrument of the Franco-American relationship.

The environment of trust that prevails between France and the United States makes it possible to establish a productive dialogue between our two countries on regional crises as well as on global issues. For many issues (Afghanistan, conflict in the Middle East, revival of the Atlantic Alliance, coordination of responses to the financial crisis), cooperation is a priority and the two countries are trying hard to coordinate their initiatives. Any trade disputes are brought up in a multilateral context.

For more information, check the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs’ website