French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Canada this summer

French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to visit Canada in July, Radio-Canada has learned.

At the moment, Macron's itinerary includes a stop in the Maritimes but not one in Quebec. France's Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is visiting Ottawa and Quebec this week.

Macron has not set foot on Canadian soil since the 2018 G7 summit in La Malbaie, Que. Radio-Canada reports Macron plans to make a stop in the Maritimes for a joint meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his team. The plans for the trip aren't yet finalized.

The goal of the visit will be to highlight the links between France and the Acadian community within the Francophonie. The Acadian World Congress is taking place from Aug. 10 to 18 in the Clare and Argyle regions of Nova Scotia.

Macron expressed his interest in attending in 2021. His presence in the Maritimes a few weeks before the congress could be a way of honouring the commitment.

Then-French President Jacques Chirac attended the Acadian World Congress in Moncton, N.B. in 1999. He also made a stop in Quebec during that official visit.

Macron is travelling to Washington, D.C. in July for the NATO summit, so his visit to Canada could be combined with that trip.

It's not known if a stop in Quebec will be added to Macron's schedule. Such a stop has been seen as an essential part of French presidents' visits to Canada in the past.

French leaders who visited Quebec in the recent past include François Hollande in 2014, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 and Chirac in 1999.