Macron heads to US for wide-ranging talks

French President Emmanuel Macron heads to Washington on Tuesday to discuss a slew of issues with US counterpart Joe Biden, ranging from aligning policy on Ukraine to easing trade spats.

Macron, in a rare honour the first French leader to be invited for two US state visits, can look forward to another 21-gun salute and ostentatious White House dinner that ex-president Donald Trump provided in 2018.

His travelling entourage of foreign, defence and finance ministers, as well as business leaders and astronauts, illustrates the range of transatlantic cooperation Paris hopes to push forward.