French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Syria on Monday, becoming the first major Western leader to visit the war-ravaged country since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in 2024.
Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Syria in April, Macron is the first leader from Western Europe or North America to make the trip.
His visit comes during a period of relative calm in the Middle East following the monthlong conflict involving Iran and Lebanon. After Syria, Macron will travel to Ankara, Turkey, for the NATO summit, where Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is also expected to attend and hold a high-profile meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Syria's state-run SANA news agency said Macron was accompanied by a business delegation and would discuss regional security, along with trade and investment opportunities.
Macron was received at Damascus International Airport by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani.
"I have come to express France's commitment to the Syrian people. For a sovereign Syria, united in its diversity and at peace with its neighbors," Macron wrote on X. "Together, let us open a new chapter of stability and peace."
According to the French president's office, France supports everyone who can help build a new Syria in line with the aspirations expressed during the 2011 Arab Spring, when widespread protests across the Middle East called for political reform and change.
Macron is scheduled to meet President al-Sharaa at the presidential palace and engage with representatives of different sections of Syrian society.
His office said meetings will continue throughout Tuesday, beginning with members of Syrian civil society, although no further details were provided. Macron will then hold talks with al-Sharaa, participate in economic discussions, sign several memorandums of understanding, and later address a joint news conference with the Syrian president.
Macron hosted al-Sharaa in Paris in May 2025 and urged European and U.S. leaders to lift long-standing sanctions on Syria. Most of those sanctions have since been removed.
France backed Syria's new leadership even when some countries remained sceptical because of al-Sharaa's Islamist-led administration and his previous role as head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which had earlier been linked to al-Qaida.
Western governments had expressed concerns over the treatment and inclusion of women and minority communities, as well as whether Syria's new leadership would move toward a more democratic system.
Although Syria has largely avoided the region's recent conflicts, the country continues to struggle with the consequences of 13 years of war, which devastated much of its infrastructure, pushed millions into poverty and left reconstruction expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
While Syria has signed a number of memorandums of understanding with countries and major companies for large-scale investment projects, those initiatives have yet to be implemented.