In Rome, a first symbolic Macron-Biden meeting since the submarine crisis

This Friday, before the opening of the G20 in Rome, the American and French presidents will finally cross paths in the flesh after mid-September the United States has beaten the pawn to France in the issue of Australian submarines. A bone of contention that has ignited transatlantic relations and that heads of state now intend to bury.

How far are the smiles of June on Carbis Bay beach? It was the time of the G7, and the discovery, of a first official meeting. This Friday, in Rome, as the curtain rises of the G20 to be held in the Italian capital from Saturday to Sunday, Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron will have the opportunity of a new first meeting. But this one will have something more tense. This will indeed be the first time that the two heads of state have crossed paths in the flesh since the crisis surrounding the delivery of submarines to Australia erupted, poisoning US-French relations.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced the meeting on Tuesday. Admittedly, Paris and Washington, allies with close ties despite everything, have never broken off their contacts and have already resumed their language. Antony Blinken, the American Secretary of State, made the trip to the Quai d’Orsay in early October to begin to soften the picture, by taking his Francophonie and Francophonie there.

The two presidents themselves have had the opportunity to speak to each other twice. But these exchanges were on the other hand held by telephone, and undoubtedly insufficient in view of the Australian liabilities.

AUKUS ends the “contract of the century”

This is the conclusion in mid-September between the United States, the United Kingdom and especially Australia of the AUKUS partnership who set fire to the powder. Under the terms of this program, Canberra will find its next nuclear-powered submarines from the American big brother who will also share its technology in the field.

Thus, the United States beat the pawn to France, which at the same time saw what had been dubbed the “contract of the century” at the time of its signature in 2016 be canceled without notice. Australia had initially committed to buy twelve French-made conventional propulsion submarines – of the Barracuda shortfin model – from the French manufacturer Naval Group. An order whose most recent estimate was still 90 billion Australian dollars (or 55 billion euros).

The first delivery was scheduled for 2030. It will therefore never take place. A cruel shortfall for France and above all a deep source of humiliation which even prompted the Élysée to recall for a time its ambassadors from across the Atlantic and in the largest island of Oceania.

Need for reconciliation

A situation of extreme tension which therefore did not last and which the meeting in Rome intends to resolve more satisfactorily. The need for this rapprochement can of course be explained by the historic alliance between the United States and France – the impossibility undoubtedly for the latter to do without the former.

In addition, the two countries must continue to work together on hot international issues, with at the top of the pile the definition of common positions on Afghanistan taken up by the Taliban in the last days of the withdrawal of American troops, and the crisis. open on this occasion.

European defense on the table

Finally, as we mentioned on Tuesday, the “Castle” has an even more pressing need to let the dead bury the dead: the executive expects the United States to support its plan to move forward on the establishment. of a European defense, a sea serpent that is already three decades old.

Discussions between governments will not stop in Rome. US Vice-President Kamala Harris is also expected in Paris during the month of November.