Submarine crisis: facing Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden recognizes clumsiness towards France

Published on : 10/29/2021 – 7:19 PM

A meeting in Rome to bury the hatchet. Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron met on Friday October 29 in Rome. The French president praised in front of his American counterpart “the concrete decisions” taken which “initiate a process of renewed confidence” between France and the United States, after the crisis of the Australian submarines.

“What we did was clumsy and was not done very elegantly,” said the American president, the clearest act of contrition to date on the part of the Americans.

Joe Biden added that France was in his eyes “a partner of extreme value”, addressing journalists to his French counterpart, who received him at the Villa Bonaparte, French embassy to the Vatican. He added the gesture to the word by extending his hand twice, in front of the cameras, to Emmanuel Macron, after already shaking hands and smiles on his arrival on the porch.

The French president, for his part, felt it was time to turn the page. “We clarified what we had to clarify,” he said. In French expectations, there is in particular clear support from the Americans about the project of genuine common European defense, dear to Paris.

According to Emmanuel Macron, this idea, which Washington has not always welcomed with the greatest warmth, is entirely compatible with NATO, the transatlantic military alliance led by the United States. Paris would also like more support for military interventions against jihadists in the Sahel, Emmanuel Macron welcoming the first concrete measures implemented on the ground by the United States.

Consolidate European alliances

The meeting of the two men, who saw each other face to face before being joined by their delegations, was to lead to a press release, the White House has already said. For Paris, the fact that the gigantic American presidential convoy – 84 cars – was moving on French soil was already a sign of the American desire to pick up the pieces.

The United States had been visibly taken aback by the very strong French reaction to the announcement in mid-September of a new alliance, dubbed “Aukus”, between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom in the indo-pacific area. Besides the fact of not having been consulted, Paris had been very disappointed by the first consequence of this partnership: the abandonment by Australia of a mega-contract for French submarines.

Dissatisfied, Emmanuel Macron, after recalling the French ambassador to the United States, had waited a week before meeting with Joe Biden on September 22, a telephone discussion which had made it possible to initiate the detente.

Before the French president, Joe Biden, anxious to consolidate the European alliances of the United States abused during the Trump presidency, had met Mario Draghi, head of the Italian government. During this meeting, they agreed on “the usefulness of developing a Europe of defense,” said the Italian government, a decidedly ubiquitous subject. These meetings serve as a curtain raiser before the G20 summit under the Italian presidency, which is held on Saturday and Sunday.

The major world powers are expected to announce a solemn agreement on a proposed minimum tax on companies, but uncertainty still persists over their ability to make strong commitments on the climate, before the summit is held next week. COP26 in Glasgow (UK).

With Reuters and AFP