PICTORIAL: Tinubu, Macron Hold Private Lunch Meeting At Élysée Palace

President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, held a private working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris, as his 10-day working leave entered its fifth day.

Photographs released by the State House showed the two leaders exchanging a warm handshake before proceeding into the palace.

Tinubu is currently on the second tranche of his annual leave, which he is spending between France and the United Kingdom. Wednesday’s engagement marks his seventh visit to Paris since assuming office in May 2023, and his first since attending the BRICS summit in Brazil and the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9) in Japan earlier this year.

So far in 2025, the President has embarked on 15 international trips across 11 countries, including summits, bilateral meetings, state visits, presidential inaugurations, and official leaves.

His diplomatic itinerary began on January 6 with a trip to Accra, Ghana, for the inauguration of President John Dramani Mahama. Ten days later, he was in the United Arab Emirates for the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Summit, where he also met with Gulf investors and officials on trade and energy cooperation.

Other engagements have included the Africa Heads of State Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (January 27–28), the 37th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (February), and multiple working visits to France and the UK.

Recall that in May, Tinubu travelled to Vatican City to attend the historic inauguration of Pope Leo XIV, before proceeding in June to Saint Lucia, where he addressed CARICOM leaders during a landmark state visit. He also attended the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro in July and TICAD in Yokohama, Japan, later that month, where he held bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on maritime security and digital infrastructure.

The President has also made two stopovers in the UAE this year, the most recent in August en route to Japan. In September, he returned to the UK and France for a working vacation, marking his third visit to Paris in 2025.

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