This week’s visit – it will include Oval Office talks, a glitzy dinner, a news conference and more – comes at a critical moment for both leaders.

The leaders have a long agenda for their Thursday meeting at the White House, including Iran’s nuclear programme, China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific and growing concerns about security and stability in Africa’s Sahel region, according to US and French officials.

But front and centre during their Oval Office meeting will be Russia’s war in Ukraine, as both Biden and Macron work to maintain economic and military support for Kyiv as it tries to repel Russian forces.

Macron seeks end to ‘confrontation’ in Asia amid US-China power struggle

The visit also comes as both Washington and Paris are keeping an eye on China after protests broke out last weekend in several mainland cities and Hong Kong over Beijing’s zero-Covid strategy.

At a red carpet arrival ceremony after landing in Washington on Tuesday evening, Macron ignored a shouted question from a reporter about whether he and Biden planned to discuss the China protests – the biggest show of public dissent in China in decades.

In Washington, Republicans are set to take control of the House, where party leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday following a meeting with Biden and fellow congressional leaders again vowed that Republicans will not write a “blank cheque” for Ukraine.

Across the Atlantic, Macron’s efforts to keep Europe united will be tested by the mounting costs of supporting Ukraine in the nine-month war and as Europe battles rising energy prices that threaten to derail the post-pandemic economic recovery.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday described Macron as the “dynamic leader” of America’s oldest ally while explaining Biden’s decision to honour the French president with the first state visit of his presidency.

The US tradition of honouring foreign heads of state dates back to Ulysses S. Grant, who hosted King David Kalakaua of the Kingdom of Hawaii for a more than 20-course White House dinner, but the tradition has been on hold since 2019 because of Covid-19 concerns.

“If you look at what’s going on in Ukraine, look at what’s going on in the Indo-Pacific and the tensions with China, France is really at the centre of all those things,” Kirby said. “And so the president felt that this was exactly the right and the most appropriate country to start with for state visits.”

Macron was also Republican Donald Trump’s pick as the first foreign leader to be honoured with a state visit during his term.

The 2018 state visit included a jaunt by the two leaders to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, America’s founding president.

Tree symbolising Trump-Macron friendship is dead

French government spokesperson Olivier Veran said that Macron’s second state visit is “a strong symbol of the partnership between France and the United States”.

It shows “very strong ties” between the countries and comes at a moment where the world is faced with important international issues, including the war in Ukraine, food security, climate and energy, he said.

Veran added that there is a need for “re-synchronising” the agendas of the European Union and the United States to face crises, especially on energy and rising prices.

Macron was to have a packed day of meetings and appearances in and around Washington on Wednesday – including a visit to Nasa headquarters with Vice-President Kamala Harris and talks with Biden administration officials on nuclear energy.

On Thursday, Macron will have his private meeting with Biden followed by a joint news conference and visits to the State Department and Capitol Hill before Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, are feted at the state dinner.

Macron will head to New Orleans on Friday, where he is to announce plans to expand programming to support French language education in US schools, according to French officials.

For all of that, there are still areas of tension in the US-French relationship.

Top of these is tension over Biden’s signature green industry policy, the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, which will pump billions of dollars into climate-friendly technologies, with strong backing for American-made products. Similar effort is being put into microchip manufacturing.

Macron says France still open to reviving submarine deal with Australia

Europeans fear an unfair US advantage in the sectors just as they are reeling from the economic consequences of the Ukraine war and Western attempts to end reliance on Russian energy supplies.

Talk in Europe is now increasingly on whether the bloc should respond with its own subsidies and championing of home-grown products, effectively starting a trade war.

“China favours its own products, America favours its own products. It might be time for Europe to favour its own products,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France 3 radio on Sunday.

Biden was certainly in no mood to apologise, saying in a speech at a microchip factory in Michigan on Tuesday that the push for a revitalised US-based industrial base is “a game changer”.

“Companies began moving jobs overseas rather than moving product overseas,” he said. “We’re not going to be held hostage any more.”

The breadth of Macron’s entourage – including the foreign, defence and finance ministers, as well as business leaders and astronauts – illustrates the importance Paris has put on the visit.

Xi calls for French respect and cooperation in meeting with Macron

Macron’s visit comes about 14 months after the relationship hit its nadir after the US announced its deal to sell nuclear submarines to Australia.

After the announcement of the deal, which had been negotiated in secret, France briefly recalled its ambassador to Washington.

A few weeks later Macron met Biden in Rome ahead of the Group of 20 summit, where the US president sought to patch things up by acknowledging his administration had been “clumsy” in how it handled the issue.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse