US Presidents Joe Biden and French Emmanuel Macron will hold a phone call in mid-October about the repercussions of the crisis resulting from the strategic partnership between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom and the cancellation of a major French submarine deal that was concluded with Canberra.
“Our in-depth consultations are continuing in preparation for a new contact between the two presidents in mid-October, and then a possible meeting in Europe on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting to be held at the end of October,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told the National Assembly on Wednesday.
The crisis erupted in mid-September, when US President Joe Biden announced the establishment of a new strategic alliance with Australia and the United Kingdom in the Indo-Pacific region, in the context of confronting China, which is his first priority.
With the establishment of this partnership, called Ocos, Australia terminated a huge contract to buy French submarines, which angered Paris and caused a crisis that rarely occurs.
The crisis between the two countries did not calm down a bit until after a phone call between Biden and Macron at the end of a week of intense tension.
The US President acknowledged that his country could have communicated better with its ally, and the two presidents initiated a “mechanism of in-depth consultations.”
On Tuesday, the French president received US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Paris, as part of efforts to achieve reconciliation between the two countries.
The Elysee declared that the “prolonged one-on-one meeting”, which was not on the agenda at first, aims to “push towards restoring confidence between France and the United States” after the submarine crisis in mid-September.
Source: AFP
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