Submarine crisis: reconciliation with France “will take time and a lot of work”, acknowledges – franceinfo

After the Australian submarine crisis, the time for reconciliation has come. “We recognize that this will take time and a lot of work, and will result not only in declarations, but also in actions,” said declared, Thursday, September 23, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, during a press conference on the sidelines of the UN Annual General Assembly in New York.

Evoking the “cooperation and coordination” that Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron pledged to deepen in their telephone interview on Wednesday, Antony Blinken said the two allied countries could “do more” and “better”. He underlined at length the importance of France, especially in the Indo-Pacific region where Washington announced in mid-September an alliance with Australia and the United Kingdom, which was at the origin of the crisis.

The US Secretary of State had a tête-à-tête Thursday morning in New York with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian. “He and I have been friends for a long time”, he said about “Jean-Yves”, “I have great, great esteem for him”.