French President Emmanuel Macron will host US President Donald Trump for a state dinner at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday evening, following next week's G7 summit in France, the two governments announced on Saturday. The dinner is intended to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, with Macron's office describing the 17th-century royal palace as "a historic symbol of Franco-American friendship."
The summit itself will take place in Evian-les-Bains, a lakeside town in southeastern France on the shores of Lake Geneva, and opens on Monday. The G7 — which groups the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — will address a wide-ranging agenda including economic growth, critical mineral supply chains, illegal immigration and artificial intelligence. The conflicts in Ukraine and Iran are expected to dominate much of the discussion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend, though no formal bilateral meeting with Trump is currently scheduled, according to senior US administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Beyond his meeting with Macron, Trump is set to hold an unusually dense schedule of bilateral talks on the summit's sidelines. He plans separate meetings with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and India — all attending at Macron's invitation as non-G7 guests. Discussions with Gulf leaders are expected to centre on efforts to wind down the Iran war, including plans to remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. Britain and France have both expressed interest in assisting with demining operations once hostilities are paused. Trump is also likely to discuss a trade deal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi; the two countries signed a joint framework agreement earlier this year, though a final deal is considered possible but unlikely to be concluded at the summit.
The choice of Versailles as a diplomatic backdrop carries considerable symbolic weight. The palace, located about 20 kilometres southwest of Paris, served as the residence of French kings from Louis XIV to Louis XVI and now regularly receives heads of state and foreign dignitaries. Macron has used it for high-profile occasions before — hosting King Charles III and Queen Camilla in 2021 for the palace's 400th anniversary, and welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin there in 2017, early in his presidency, before relations soured over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Trump is due to arrive in France on Monday afternoon, departing Washington after celebrating his 80th birthday on Sunday with a primetime event on the White House lawn. The Versailles dinner on Wednesday will serve as the centrepiece of what amounts to a broad diplomatic push across multiple fronts — from the Iran conflict and Middle East diplomacy to trade negotiations and the ongoing war in Ukraine.