Following the cancellation of a submarine deal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Tuesday to try to heal ties.
President Emmanuel Macron was incensed last month when Australia decided to forego a multibillion-dollar purchase of French submarines in favour of nuclear-powered rivals from the United States.
Macron’s government dubbed the cancellation “a stab in the back,” and the French president summoned his diplomats from Washington and Canberra.
President Joe Biden has since apologised, with Karen Donfried, the assistant secretary of state for European affairs, saying last week that “the September 15 announcement might have benefited from greater and more open conversation among allies.”
The meeting between Blinken and his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, slated for Tuesday is unlikely to be as friendly as usual between the two allied governments.
The meeting, according to a representative for Le Drian’s ministry, is solely to “identify initiatives that may help a return of confidence between our two countries.”
Macron and Blinken are not planned to meet in person, indicating that French rage is still seething. Instead, the US top diplomat will meet with Emmanuel Bonne, the French president’s diplomatic advisor.
This exclusion stands in stark contrast to French President Emmanuel Macron’s availability for Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, when he paid a goodbye visit to Paris in November last year.
– ‘It’s not just in words’ –
Blinken’s trip to Paris had been planned before the submarine dispute began, and it was timed to coincide with a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of mostly wealthy countries.
The fallout from the defence issue, on the other hand, is expected to consume the most of his two-day stay.
Blinken, a fluent French speaker who spent part of his childhood in Paris, will need all of his French knowledge and diplomatic savvy to persuade his hosts that the collaboration is viable in the long run.
Donfried said the US recognised that restoring ties “would take time and hard work, and it will need to be proved not only in words but also in deeds,” repeating France’s prior view.
After Biden spoke with Macron over the phone, Macron dispatched his envoy to Washington, where he met with Blinken and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security advisor.
Meanwhile, Macron remains enraged with Australia, and a long-awaited round of free trade discussions between Australia and the EU has been postponed by a month.
Canberra announced the submarine decision as part of a new alliance with the United Kingdom and the United States known as AUKUS. AUKUS is one of Biden’s many efforts aimed at combating China, which he sees as the US’s most pressing worry.
Blinken would discuss the Asia policy with France, which has a foothold in the Indo-Pacific area through multiple overseas territories, according to US sources.
“AUKUS is not meant to be a replacement for existing agreements or collaborations,” Donfried explained. “On the contrary, we welcome the chance to talk about how we might involve the EU and other partners in our projects,” she said.
Blinken will also co-chair a ministerial meeting in Paris to commemorate the OECD’s 60th anniversary.
A month before the high-stakes UN climate negotiations in Glasgow, the summit will focus on fostering a green economy.
