The French president showed elegance
and discretion with Trump, as he has with Putin. His diplomatic skill shows up
Theresa May’s ineptitude
• Mary Dejevsky is a writer and broadcaster
Friday 14 July 2017 11.43 BST Last modified on Friday 14
July 2017 20.26 BST
Within hours of Air Force One touching down in Paris there
was fresh confirmation that no foreign visit by this US president comes without
its risks. Betraying what the kindest interpretation would describe as an
old-fashioned eye for the ladies – let’s face it, he is 71 – Donald Trump had
strayed from the conventional introductions to compliment his host’s wife,
Brigitte, on her figure. He then turned to her husband, the president of
France, to remark: “She’s in such good physical shape. Beautiful, isn’t she
beautiful?”
This unfortunate sequence will, no doubt, go down in Macron
family legend. It may also be replayed for new generations of French diplomats
to prepare them for – how shall we say? – the unconventional and unexpected.
Nor was there any disaster. It would take more than a sexist, off-colour remark
by a bumbling American president to faze this smooth young French head of state
and his wife.
For what we are seeing, even more vividly than at the G20
summit in Hamburg a week ago, is a study in diplomatic contrast, and in
diplomacy itself. Trump seemed to crash into Paris from another, more basic,
more elemental world. Paris offered the very opposite: elegance, precision, and
that great French quality, discretion, but also a canny appraisal of its guest.
Lurking somewhere in Emmanuel Macron’s team, there has to be
a genius in the diplomatic arts; perhaps Macron himself, with his university
thesis on Machiavelli. The decision to invite Trump for Bastille Day, to view
the Champs Élysées parade alongside Macron, capitalised on what would appear to
be a rather manufactured anniversary – the centenary of the US entry into the
first world war – and the participation of American troops in the parade.
But the military display – always an impressive spectacle –
and the celebration of the French-US entente, in a bilateral, pre-Nato form, has
everything it needs to please Trump, with his suspicions of collective
security. Add the visit to Napoleon’s tomb at Les Invalides – the august
surroundings, the subtle hint (maybe) that Macron himself is the youngest head
of state since then – and the dinner at the Eiffel Tower (we have a rather good
tower, too), and you have a masterclass, a very French masterclass, in
diplomacy.
‘
And each in its own way, in the backdrops and the mood – the
opulence of Versailles for Putin – was tailored to please and flatter the
guest.’ Photograph: Stephane De Sakutin/Pool/EPA
In the two months of his presidency, Macron already has
visits from both the US and Russian presidents under his belt. Each invitation
was bold and entailed risk. Each used a bilateral occasion as a pretext (the
military centenary for Trump, an exhibition marking 300 years since Peter the
Great’s visit to France for Vladimir Putin). And each in its own way, in the
backdrops and the mood – pomp and tourism for Trump; the opulence of Versailles
for Putin – was tailored to please and flatter the guest.
When did we British lose this facility? David Cameron
managed to offend most of his fellow Europeans (and that was even before the
Brexit referendum). Having rushed to be the first foreign leader to visit Trump
after his inauguration, Theresa May made an overhasty offer of a state visit –
an offer that was actually not in her gift to make – which was then withdrawn
in the light of political and popular hostility. Or rather, Trump was persuaded
to cry off for fear of protests.
And Macron’s audacity may yet win him an extra prize. Having
stood by his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate change accord
in Hamburg, Trump hinted to Macron that there might be some adjustment to the
US position. “Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord,” he
said. Well, maybe it could – or maybe, after a day’s immersion, even the
rough-hewn Donald Trump is absorbing a little of that inimitable French
diplomatic style.
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