The U.S. State Department said that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken discussed with his new French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, issues of support for Ukraine and the membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO, the need to continue active support for Ukraine, and they discussed steps that the United States and France could jointly take to support countries eligible for accession to the European Union, without specifying.

And she reported in Belin that “the two ministers” discussed the topic of NATO, including how best to support Finland’s and Sweden’s membership bids, in addition to the main topics of the upcoming Madrid summit, noting that “the two sides also agreed on the need to respond to urgent food needs and food security” to the millions of people around the world who find themselves in vulnerable situations.

The column took over as French foreign minister on Friday after three years as ambassador to Britain.