PARIS (AP) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Paris meeting with French officials to go over plans to respond to last week’s attacks and bring an end to the conflict in Syria.
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Kerry landed in the French capital under unusual security precautions that precluded journalists accompanying with him from reporting his planned visit – believed to be the first such restriction for a secretary of state’s travel to a European capital.
“THE USA and France are not only friends – we are family”, said Kerry, who is due to meet French President Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday. “We will never be intimidated by terrorists”. “We will fight to ensure the world our children inherit is rich in love and short on hate”.
He spoke a day after Hollande addressed both France’s parliament chambers, calling for a global effort to eradicate IS, following attacks on Friday which killed at least 129 people.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said Kerry will meet and thank U.S. Embassy staffers and hold talks with French officials.
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The two countries have reaffirmed their military cooperation, with US President Barack Obama saying Monday that a new agreement had been forged on intelligence-sharing for air strikes in Syria. “It is an assault on our collective sense of reason and objective”, Kerry also said.
