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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: BIDEN FRANCE Preview
HEADLINE: Biden, with France visit, looks to past and future of global conflicts
TEASER: Biden, in France for D-Day anniversary, to stress need for solidarity on Ukraine
PUBLISHED: Wednesday, 06/05/2024 at
BYLINE: Anita Powell
CONTRIBUTOR: Patsy Widakuswara
DATELINE: The White House, Paris
VIDEOGRAPHER:
VIDEO EDITOR:
SCRIPT EDITORS: pcd, wpm
VIDEO SOURCES: AP, AFP, Zoom and VOA original
PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT:
VID APPROVED BY:
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES: I couldn’t upload the SOTS into Frame, for whatever reason. Here is a WETRANSFER link: https://we.tl/t-2cuqfLFSyD))
((INTRO:)) [[U.S. President Joe Biden is in France to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landing and to underscore the need for a strong transatlantic alliance in the face of Russian aggression. He’ll also take part in a formal state visit hosted by France’s president, and will meet face-to-face with Ukraine’s president, who has been invited to (somber ceremonies marking this decisive battle that led to the end of the World War II. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Paris. ]]
((Narrator))
Bonjour, Paris!
President Joe Biden has long described France as one of his nation’s strongest allies – which he underscored by granting France his administration’s first invitation for a state visit, in 2022.
Now it’s time for France to return his hospitality, as Biden marks the 80th anniversary of the massive, decisive Allied assault that changed the course of history.
((Radio: John Kirby is White House national security communications adviser.))
((John Kirby, National Security Spokesman))
“The President is very much looking forward to going to Normandy over the course of the next two days of this week to commemorate the service and the sacrifice, the bravery of the soldiers, Allied and American alike, who fought in D-Day in that invasion, conducted Operation Overlord and really spelled through that operation, the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany, and the beginning of something even more impactful, and that's this rules based international order that we all still continue to enjoy today.”
((NARRATOR))
Biden plans to use the event to hammer home the need for transatlantic unity against Russian aggression in Ukraine. Here, analysts say, history offers lessons.
((Radio: Mark Cancian is a retired Marine colonel and a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.))
((Mark Cancian, Center for Strategic and International Studies)) ((Zoom))
“The D-Day landings were the Western Allies’ military statement that authoritarian regimes could not change boundaries by force. That countries could not just be invaded, and that authoritarian regimes of the type that Nazi Germany constituted -- particularly with its terrible oppression of subjugated peoples, particularly the Jews -- were not acceptable and not just not acceptable, but would be destroyed.”
But analysts say Biden’s Ukraine goals will be overshadowed by his increasingly unpopular support of another conflict.
((Radio: Trita Parsi is executive vice president of the Quincy Institute.))
((Trita Parsi, Quincy Institute))
“Even though obviously Ukraine is the top priority for the Europeans, they are seeing how the Biden administration's policy on Gaza is undermining European security in two different ways. First of all, it is really destroying Western credibility in the broader international community and in the Global South – any talk about the rules-based international order at this point, will get laughed at, given what the Biden administration has done.”
((Narrator))
This high-level diplomacy is, at the best of times, a challenge for any world leader.
At the worst of times, it can foment conflict.
As Biden lands in France ahead of six weeks of high-stakes summits aimed at soothing worldwide tensions, the question is: which time are we living in?
((Anita Powell, VOA News, Paris))
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