President Emmanuel Macron led tributes to the millions of soldiers killed during World War One on Sunday, holding an emotional ceremony in Paris attended by dozens of world leaders to commemorate the centenary of the Armistice.
US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and dozens of monarchs, princes, presidents and prime ministers joined Macron to mark the moment guns fell silent across Europe a century ago.
Those who fought in the trenches of World War One lived through an unimaginable hell, Macron said in a 20-minute address, highlighting that as well as the deaths of 10 million troops, millions of women were widowed and children orphaned.
“The lesson of the Great War cannot be that of resentment between peoples, nor should the past be forgotten,” said Macron, sorrow etched on the faces of former French soldiers standing to attention around him.
“It is our deeply rooted obligation to think of the future, and to consider what is essential.”
ALSO READ: Trump sends 5,200 troops to Mexico border as caravan approaches
The commemoration is the centerpiece of global tributes to honor those who died during the 1914-18 war and to commemorate the signing of the Armistice that brought the fighting to an end at 11 am on Nov 11, 1918.
In a glass canopy at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, built by Emperor Napoleon in 1806, Trump, Merkel, Macron, Putin and the other leaders listened through earpieces as the French president spoke. Putin, who was last to arrive at the ceremony, gave Trump a brief thumbs up as he greeted them.
As Trump’s convoy made its way up the Champs Elysees, a bare-breasted protester from the Femen radical feminist group ran towards his motorcade, coming within a few meters before being apprehended by police. Photographs appeared to show that she had the words “fake peacemaker” scrawled across her body.