After Kushner’s no-show, Barrot said in an interview Tuesday that he had requested the American envoy be barred from meeting members of the French government until he “respects the most basic customs of diplomacy and responds to the summons of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Kushner and Barrot have since “agreed to meet in the coming days to continue working toward a strong bilateral relationship,” the official close to Barrot said.
The official did not answer POLITICO’s question as to why Kushner, the father of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and diplomatic envoy Jared Kushner, had missed his meeting. The U.S. Embassy in France did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Barrot said during his Tuesday interview that the incident with the activist was purely domestic and that France had “no lessons to learn, particularly when it comes to violence, from international reactionary [forces].”
During the phone call with Barrot, Kushner “expressed his willingness not to interfere in our public debate, and reiterated the friendship between France and the United States,” the French official said.
The incident marks the second time Kushner has been summoned by his host country since becoming an ambassador. He was previously hauled in to answer for writing in the Wall Street Journal that France wasn’t doing enough to combat antisemitism.