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Trump, Macron on Good Terms as World Leaders Gather for WWI Centennial

Trump, Macron on Good Terms as World Leaders Gather for WWI Centennial

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, greets President Donald Trump prior to their meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, in Paris, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

Saturday, 10 November 2018 12:56 PM EST

Traveling from across the world to monuments honoring soldiers who fell 100 years ago, victors and vanquished alike marked those sacrifices Saturday ahead of Armistice Day and assessed alliances that have been redrawn dramatically since the dark days of World War I.

A century ago, the entry of U.S. troops into World War I tipped the momentum toward its allies, including France and Britain. Even as he embarked on two days of observances for the Nov. 11, 1918 armistice, President Donald Trump said the United States now bears far too much of the burden to defend the West.

Trump's trip to Paris to mark the occasion got off to a rocky start as he and French President Emmanual Macron worked Saturday to ease tensions after a dustup over their comments about European security threatened to divert attention from the weekend ceremonies.

Just as Air Force One touched down in Paris Friday night, Trump tweeted that Macron “has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia. Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly!”

Macron’s office said Trump misunderstood Macron’s comments about sharing the defense burden, and the two men struck a more friendly tone as they opened their meeting at the grand presidential residence on a rainy day in Paris.

“We want to help Europe but it has to be fair. Right now, the burden-sharing has been largely on the United States,” Trump said, adding that Macron “understands that and he understands the United States can only do so much, in fairness to the United States.”

Trump added that the U.S. wants to “absolutely be there” to help defend Europe but that “different countries have to also help.”

Macron defended his viewpoint, saying “I do share President Trump’s views that we need a much better burden sharing with NATO and that’s why I do believe that my proposal for a European defense” is “utterly consistent with that.”

Macron said it’s “unfair to have the European security today being assured just by the United States.”

Trump’s tweet aside, Macron welcomed Trump in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace with a handshake and pats on the arm. Standing in a cool drizzle, the leaders flashed thumbs-up signs to reporters but ignored their shouted questions about Macron’s remarks.

Inside a gilded meeting room, Macron referred to Trump as “my good friend” and tapped him on the thigh. Trump said they had become “very good friends over the last couple of years” and were “similar in our views” on many issues.

After the Trump meeting, 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 at the site north of Paris where the defeated Germans and the Allies signed the agreement that ended the 1914-18 war.

After Chancellor Angela Merkel briefly snuggled her head into the neck of Macron, the two went inside a replica of the train car where the armistice was reached and put their names in a guestbook. Macron then took Merkel's hand in his, again highlighting the changes on the continent where two world wars were fought in the 20th century.

"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.

A flurry of Armistice-related diplomacy once again turned Paris, the jewel that Germany sought to take in 1914 but which the Allies successfully fought to defend, into the center of global attention Saturday as dozens of world leaders arrived in the French capital on the eve of the solemn centennial commemorations.

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.

In the four years of fighting, remembered for brutal trench warfare and the first use of gas, France, the British empire, Russia, and the United States had the main armies opposing a German-led coalition that also included the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires.

Almost 10 million soldiers died. France lost 1.4 million and Germany 2 million.

Yet, despite a war that was supposed to end all wars, World War II pitted both sides against each other once again in 1940.

Across the line that once marked the Western Front, leaders lauded the courage of soldiers who were killed during the unprecedented slaughter, before converging on Paris for a dinner.

The armistice entered into force on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, and on Sunday 69 world leaders will commemorate the centennial of the event at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, underneath the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris.

At dawn Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went to Vimy Ridge, the battlefield in northern France where Canada found its sense of self when it defeated German opposition against the odds.

Standing amid the white headstones against 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."

In southern Belgium's Mons, Canadians were also lauding George Price, the last Commonwealth soldier to die in the war when he was shot by a German sniper two minutes before the armistice took effect.

Trump was looking beyond the tragedy of death and destruction, asking in a tweet: "Is there anything better to celebrate than the end of a war, in particular that one, which was one of the bloodiest and worst of all time?"

After his meeting with Macron, Trump had been scheduled to head to the battlefield of Belleau Wood, 90 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of the capital, where U.S. troops had their breakthrough battle by stopping a German push for Paris shortly after entering the war in 1917.

The battle of Belleau Wood proved America's mettle to allies and foes alike, and by the time the war ended U.S. forces were at least an equal to any of the other major armies, which were exhausted and depleted.

However, Trump canceled his visit because of bad weather.

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Traveling from across the world to monuments honoring soldiers who fell 100 years ago, victors and vanquished alike marked those sacrifices Saturday ahead of Armistice Day and assessed alliances that have been redrawn dramatically since the dark days of World War I.
trump, macron, wwi, centennial, paris
1060
2018-56-10
Saturday, 10 November 2018 12:56 PM
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