US President Donald Trump began his 48-hour visit to Paris on Saturday meeting with his host, French President Emmanuel Macron, a onetime friend who he chided on Twitter within minutes of landing in the French capital.

The men worked to paper over their differences during a morning meeting. But the effusive expressions of bonhomie that once coloured their interactions were gone, replaced by businesslike handshakes and wooden declarations of cooperation.

Seconds after Air Force One touched down at Orly Airport outside Paris on Friday defence vented on social media about a proposal for more robust European military cooperation floated by his French counterpart days earlier.

“President Macron of France has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia,” Trump wrote. The message appeared before he’d even gotten off his plane. “Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly!”

At the start of the meeting, the pair seemed to gloss over whatever differences they may have on European military cooperation, saying they were aligned on burden sharing.

“We’re getting along from the standpoint of fairness, and I want to be fair. We want to help Europe, but it has to be fair,” Trump said. “Right now, the burden sharing has been largely on the United States as the President will say, and he understands that. He understands the United States can only do so much.”

Macron said his “proposals for European defense are consistent” with Trump’s views.

The morning meeting precedes the real reason for Trump’s visit: marking the 100th anniversary of the World War I armistice, which will bring leaders from across Europe to the Arc de Triomphe on Sunday for a solemn ceremony.

Trump is also due to mark to centenary with visits to burial grounds for some of the 117,000 American military personnel who died in the war. On Saturday, he will visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near where the Battle of Belleau Wood was fought in 1918. He will deliver remarks from Suresnes American Cemetery on Sunday — Veterans Day in the United States.

On Tuesday, Macron called for a “real European army” during a tour of the former Western Front, according to AFP.

“We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” Macron said, according to the French press agency.

Macron also suggested that since the start of Trump’s presidency, the US has been seen as a less reliable ally.

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