Caen (France): World leaders gathered on Friday to mark 70 years since the historic D-Day invasion of France that hastened the end of World War II and this year is taking place against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis.
At ceremonies on the beaches of northern France, where the biggest amphibious assault in history was launched in 1944, heads of state, royalty and prime ministers rubbed shoulders with hundreds of veterans, now in their 90s, who risked their lives to liberate Europe from Nazism.
“This day, which began in chaos and fire, would end in blood and tears, tears and pain, tears and joy at the end of 24 hours that changed the world and forever marked Normandy,” French President Francois Hollande said as he opened the ceremonies.
Dignitaries – including Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who at the age of 88 is making a now rare foreign trip, and sparring world leaders US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin – will have lunch together at a grand chateau before heading to the beaches for a solemn international ceremony. Around 1,800 veterans from Britain, the United States, France, Canada but also Russia and Poland, will honour the sacrifice of thousands of their comrades who fell on D-Day, many of them marking the occasion for the last time given their advanced age. The D-Day ceremonies will give world leaders feuding over the Ukraine crisis a rare common purpose but the diplomatic wrangling over the worst East-West confrontation since the Cold War started in earnest on Thursday and was set to continue throughout the anniversary.
Putin has been in the diplomatic deep-freeze since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March and held his first meeting with Western leaders since then – a bilateral with Britain’s David Cameron and a late-night meal with French President Francois Hollande. Paris was the centre of a frenzied bout of meal-time diplomacy late yesterday, as Hollande gobbled down a rushed dinner with Obama before hosting the Russian leader for ‘supper’ at the Elysee Palace. Cameron said he had left Putin in no doubt as to the West’s demands over Ukraine in what he described as “a meeting with a very clear and firm set of messages.” (Agencies)
