Kurdistan Region President Barzani on Saturday attended the reopening ceremony of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris alongside world leaders and global figures, emphasizing diplomatic recognition for the region.
Barzani met with US President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the former’s nominee to lead the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the owner of major businesses such as Tesla, SpaceX, and X Corp.
This marked the second personal meeting between President Barzani and Trump, following their encounter on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum summit in Davos in 2020.
The event was held at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris for a ceremony to reopen the iconic cathedral that was ravaged by a fire in 2019.
Dozens of heads of state, including Trump, joined French President Emmanuel Macron for the ceremony.
Along with Trump and Musk, Barzani also met with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, as well as Macron himself.
The Cathedral of Notre Dame is a pillar of French national identity. The historic building caught fire in 2019. The main steeple and its stained-glass windows were destroyed, though the structure of the body of the church survived.
Thousands of craftsmen and engineers worked on the restoration that cost a reported 700 million euros.
France is a longtime friend and ally of the Kurdistan Region.