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Barack Obama to meet Macron for ‘private’ lunch during weekend in Paris

Former US president Barack Obama will be in Paris this weekend where he will be treated to a lunch with President Emmanuel Macron. The event will be low key so as not to cheese off Donald Trump.

Barack Obama to meet Macron for 'private' lunch during weekend in Paris
Obama had backed Macron for president. AFP
The lunch at Macron's Elysee Palace residence — in a “private” capacity, the presidency said Thursday — will come as Obama visits Paris to speak to Les Napoleons, a network of communications professionals.
 
Obama, who publicly endorsed Macron during his election campaign, will arrive in Paris on Friday where he is due to make an appearance at the bi-annual “Napoleons” summit as the special guest.
 
He will give a speech at the Radio France auditorium. 
 
Macron has invited him for lunch on Saturday although the venue remains a secret. The lunch meeting has not been announced officially as the Elysée Palace are apparently concerned about irritating current US president Donald Trump, who they fear may take offence.
 
It is unlikely Obama will be given the same treatment Trump was given during his summer visit to Paris, when he and his wife Melania were wined and dined at the Jules Verne restaurant on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower.
 
Trump however has not been invited to the December 12 climate summit in Paris, unlike 100 other leaders, and Macron has also said he wants to save the Iranian nuclear deal despite Trump's opposition.
 
Last time Obama was in Paris in December 2015 he dined with then French president François Hollande at L'Ambroisie, a restaurant with three Michelin stars in the swanky Place des Vosges square.
 
Hollande treats Obama to three-star French cuisine
 
He had apparently asked Hollande if they could eat out rather than at the Elysée Palace.
 
Obama is also due to meet Hollande during his latest trip to Paris but not his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.
 
 

OBAMA

Barack Obama to return to Denmark in September

Former US president Barack Obama will visit Denmark for the second time in 12 months to give a talk in Aalborg at the end of September.

Barack Obama to return to Denmark in September
Former US President Barack Obama in Kolding last year. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix

Obama’s September 28th stop in North Jutland would have fallen in the same month as the now-postponed official state visit of his successor, Donald Trump, on September 2nd and 3rd.

The 44th president of the United States last came to Denmark in 2018, when he gave a talk for business leaders in Kolding, and also visited while in office.

READ ALSO: Obama uses Denmark speech to warn against 'racial', 'nationalistic' politics

Bill Clinton was the first sitting president to visit Denmark when he visited in 1997. George W. Bush came to the Scandinavian country eight years later in 2005. Obama visited Denmark in 2009 as part of the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen.

Obama’s latest trip to the country was announced by venue Musikkens Hus in northern city Aalborg, which will play host to the event “A Conversation with President Barack Obama”.

Musikkens Hus CEO Lasse Rich Henningsen, who will act as moderator at the event at which guests will be invited to ask questions, said he was looking forward to the occasion.

“President Obama is one of the people I look up to most in the in the world, so I’m hugely looking forward to meeting him,” Henningsen told Ritzau.

The invitation-only Aalborg event is primarily for business leaders, who will form the majority of the audience along with around two hundred students from Aalborg University.

Tickets will cost invited business leaders between 3,500 and 8,500 kroner, while students will attend for free, Henningsen said.

The Musikkens Hus foundation expects the event to break even, while Obama’s fee is undisclosed, Henningsen said.

The visit will be the first to Aalborg by a former US president.

“I’m in not a second of doubt that this will be a new climax for Aalborg and all of North Jutland,” the city’s lord mayor Thomas Kastrup-Larsen said in a press statement.

“I’m delighted that one of the world’s most prominent people sees potential in visiting Aalborg to share his visions about such topics as leadership and entrepreneurship,” he added.

READ ALSO: Trump baby blimp to fly over Denmark protests

Article updated on August 21st, 2019 to reflect President Trump's postponement of his September 2nd-3rd state visit to Denmark.

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