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Macron, Biden set to meet to ease tensions
Biden and Macron will meet in Europe, according to the statement. The US president is scheduled to attend the G20 summit in Rome and the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in October-November.
US President Joe Biden said he will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in October, seeking to mend ties after a US nuclear-powered submarine deal with Australia outraged officials in Paris.
Biden held a phone call with the French president on Wednesday, the first time the they spoke since the submarine deal was announced last week. In a joint statement, the two countries said Biden and Macron “agreed the situation would have benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners”.
The agreement between the US, Australia and the UK scuttled a previous $66 billion deal for France to build a diesel-powered sub fleet for Australia. French officials complained they were taken by surprise and cut out of talks on a broader defence alliance between the three English-speaking countries.
In an unprecedented move, France recalled its ambassador from Washington on Friday in protest. Macron will return the ambassador next week, according to the joint statement.
The French also asked that a US and EU summit scheduled for next week be postponed. The fate of that summit wasn’t mentioned in the statement.
The White House has said it was Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s obligation to inform France he was ending their deal for diesel-powered subs. Morrison has said he had made concerns about the French subs clear to Macron’s government and that they wouldn’t meet Australia’s future security needs.
Biden and Macron will meet in Europe, according to the statement. The US president is scheduled to attend the G20 summit in Rome and the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in October-November.
Earlier, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told France to “get a grip” and give allies in the US and Australia a break over a row about the trilateral nuclear submarine deal that tore up the separate French contract.
Speaking a day after he met Biden in Washington, Johnson told reporters, “I think it’s time for some of our dearest friends around the world to ‘prenez un grip’ about all this, ‘donnez-moi un break’, because this is fundamentally a great step forward for global security.” He was translating the English phrases “get a grip” and “give me a break” literally into French.
