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The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, met this Tuesday with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian and President Emmanuel Macron, in an attempt to smooth things over after France lost a juicy contract with Australia, initially valued. in 40,000 million dollars, for the sale of submarines.
The White House sent its Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Paris on Tuesday in an attempt to make peace with the French government that, in recent days, claimed to have been “stabbed in the back” by the United States and other close allies. .
The “stabbing” caused France to lose a millionaire contract with Australia for the sale of 12 submarines, which unleashed a serious diplomatic crisis between Washington and Paris.
For Blinken, as he said from the French capital, it was a communication problem and pointed out that they could have done “better” the operation of the AUKUS security pact.
The US Secretary of State made this statement after meeting with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and with French President Emmanuel Macron. After both meetings, there were no statements to the press.
Despite the marked gap between the two parties, Blinken described the meetings with French officials as “very cordial and friendly”, in which they also focused on pushing for greater security cooperation between European nations.
Enjoyed a productive discussion with French Foreign Minister @JY_LeDrian on addressing shared economic and development challenges, as well as regional issues in the Indo-Pacific, the Sahel, and Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/hKKoCPLpDM
– Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) October 5, 2021
“President Macron reiterated that make this an opportunity to deepen and strengthen cooperation and coordination, from the Euro-Atlantic region to the Indo-Pacific and Africa,” Blinken said.
But apparently the French did not consider the meeting as friendly, as Paris believes that AUKUS was more of a wake-up call for the European Union states, adding that they should respond to the recent crisis between Paris and Washington by ending the the naivety of the bloc when it comes to defending its interests and developing its own military capacity within the framework of NATO.
Even during an interview for the France 2 channel, Blinken, who speaks perfect French, was questioned by a journalist, who told the Secretary of State that the French expected a “better dialogue.”
The US official acknowledged that repairing ties with France “will take time and hard work and will have to be demonstrated not only with words, but also with deeds.”
Why did the AUKUS pact cause a Franco-American crisis?
In mid-September, Australia canceled a multi-million dollar contract to acquire 12 conventional submarines from France and instead bought them from the United States and the United Kingdom through the AUKUS pact, as they offer nuclear propulsion technology developed by the Americans.
The objective of AUKUS is to defend the interests of the United States, United Kingdom and Australia in the Indo-Pacific region, which has a great economic and demographic weight, but also due to a certain concern about the influence of China.
Snubbed over subs, President Emmanuel Macron is even keener to build up European autonomy
– The Economist (@TheEconomist) September 30, 2021
Following the cancellation of the Australia-France trade agreement, the latter decided to briefly withdraw its ambassadors in Washington and Canberra, before Macron and President Joe Biden spoke on the phone and agreed to conduct a series of consultations.
As the United States tries to restore trust with France again, a new meeting has been announced at the end of October between Macron and Biden.
During the two days of Blinken’s visit to the French capital, the Secretary of State will also co-chair a ministerial meeting for the 60th anniversary of the OECD, based in Paris.
With AFP, Reuters, EFE and local media
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