France and the United States enjoy a special relationship based on their shared history and common values, as well as bilateral partnerships in numerous areas. In November 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron paid a state visit to the U.S. at President Joe Biden’s invitation – the first state visit following Biden’s election as president. Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the economic recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic and the destabilization of the international order, this visit helped strengthen the friendship, alliance and cooperation between our two countries.
In the area of defense, France and the United States maintain close and wide-ranging ties. They work together closely in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific.
France remains one of the pillars of NATO – it is one of the five top troop contributors to the alliance, reflected by its deployments to Romania and the Baltic countries. During the July 2023 NATO summit held in Vilnius, France and the U.S. reaffirmed their determination to provide Ukraine with military and financial support for as long as necessary.
France and the United States – both Indo-Pacific nations – are intent on working together to ensure peace, prosperity and security in the region. Paris and Washington are also committed to expanding their diplomatic, economic and development-related cooperation to boost resilience within their partner countries, and especially the Pacific island nations. They both agree on the challenge represented by China’s economic and military ambitions in the region and are continuing to work with China on major global challenges such as climate change.
For a number of decades, France and the United States have been engaged continuously in the Middle East and Africa, particularly in the area of counterterrorism. They both play an active role in peacekeeping operations and work together to foster the development of stable, democratic institutions.
France is the United States’ third-largest economic partner within the EU due to their especially vibrant trade relationship. Exchanges of goods between France and the United States rose to €108.5 billion in 2022, up 55.9% from the previous year, according to French customs authorities. This record figure significantly surpasses 2019 pre-pandemic levels (€81.2 billion). France is also a major investor in the United States, with foreign direct investments (FDI) amounting to $360.1 billion in 2022, while the U.S. is the leading foreign investor in France ($112 billion). French companies employ more than 740,000 people in the U.S., making them the third-largest European employer after the UK and Germany.
President Macron’s 2022 state visit also represented an opportunity to lay the groundwork for a candid discussion on the energy transition following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The two countries reaffirmed their commitment to promoting an open, multilateral trading system backed by effective, transparent international financial institutions. Their discussions reflected the high caliber of talks between the United States and the European Commission on the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, and more generally within the Trade and Technology Council.
The United States and France cooperate on a wide range of bilateral and multilateral economic partnerships, in particular, the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) and the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). We share the goal of ensuring that the instruments for development finance and global public goods are consistent and sufficient, as was demonstrated by the United States’ high-level commitment at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, which was held by France in June 2023.
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France and the United States have both made the ecological and energy transition one of the cornerstones of their respective public policies. In February 2021, in one of President Joe Biden’s first measures, the United States rejoined the Paris climate accord, following Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in June 2017.
When the United States rejoined the Paris climate accord, it gave our two countries the opportunity to strengthen cooperation on accelerating the energy transition. Together, they created the Bilateral Clean Energy Partnership, which aims to spur on innovation in the field of green energy and coordinate diplomatic efforts to achieve climate objectives.
Moreover, France and the United States are taking collective action to protect biodiversity and manage natural resources by continuing to support the countries that are the most impacted by resource depletion. Our countries will both take part in the 3rd annual UN Ocean Conference, which is set to take place in France in 2025.
The last few years have been marked by the emergence of new global security issues, namely, space defense, cybersecurity, and disinformation. In order to tackle these new challenges, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces is working together in close cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense, notably in the framework of the new statement of intent, which was signed by the French Minister and the U.S. Secretary of Defense on November 30, 2022.
In 2022, France joined the Artemis Accords, the multilateral agreement on space exploration put forth by the United States. The first edition of our two countries’ Comprehensive Dialogue on Space, which took place in November 2022, has also allowed us to make unprecedented progress in strengthening our bilateral collaboration. In order to combat cyber threats, foreign interference and disinformation, France and the United States created the U.S.-France Cyber Dialogue, the fifth edition of which took place in early 2023.
The longstanding alliance and friendship between France and the United States, two of the oldest democracies in the world, have always been grounded in our shared values: democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. France and the United States have long been committed to promoting these values throughout the world. Furthermore, President Emmanuel Macron and President Joe Biden renewed their commitment to them at the 2023 Summit for Democracy.
