The president of the United States, Joe Biden, maintained on Wednesday the first conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to lower the tension between both countries unleashed by the crises of the submarines. Although a tight conversation was planned, there was 'White Fumata' between the parties, as it emerges from the joint statement. Both agreed that a round of previous consultations would have been decisive to avoid tension between "allies on strategic interest for France and our European allies", as well as agreeing on a bilateral meeting that will lead to Europe at the end of October.
It is a kind of MEA guilty implicitly toned by Washington and a momentary patch for a crisis unleashed by the three-band military agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA, for the acronym in English of these nations - that excluded From equation to Los Gauls and deprived it of a contract of sale of nuclear submarines worth 56,000 million euros. Australia leaned down by US submarines as part of the military agreement, which Macron considered as "a stab in the back" and led him to withdraw his ambassadors from Washington and Canberra.
After the telephone conversation with Biden, the Elysee confirmed that the French ambassador called on consultations will return to occupy his position in Washington as of next week, a decisive step in order to recover normality between two countries that did not pass through a crisis Diplomatic similar from the beginning of the Iraq war.
"The two leaders have decided to open a process of in-depth consultations, aimed at creating the necessary conditions to ensure confidence and propose concrete measures towards common objectives," the statement indicates. Biden already planned on his agenda a visit to Rome at the end of October on the occasion of the G-20 meeting, where he could meet Macron, although the White House has not ruled out that the round of consultations is in another European city to solve Your differences.
Far from maintaining an exclusive posture, the Democratic president considered "necessary" to reinforce security in Europe as a complement to the NATO's role. The United States "reiterates that the commitment of France and the European Union in the IndoPacific region is of strategic importance", and especially by the power it exercises China in the region. The White House described the conversation as "friendly".
While, Boris Johnson, far from lowering tension, further revived the flames of the crisis. British Prime Minister took advantage of his official visit to Washington to ask for tranquility to his French partners after cancellation of the Submersible Gaulse purchase contract from Australia in favor of US machinery.
"I think it's time for our dear friends from all over the world to calm down about this and give me a break," he said, defending the new alliance because it was "a big step in favor of global security" and uniting three nations "Similar mentality that support shoulder shoulder and create a new alliance to share technology."
Jonhson launched from Washington a message to Emmanuel Macron, half in French, half in English: "Donne-Mois a break" ("Give me a respite"). The "Premier" ensure that its intention, with the firm of the covenant to three bands (United States, United Kingdom and Australia), was not leaving any country in the stake: "We are fundamentally at a great step for global security, with Three allies who have decided to go shoulder with a man for a new alliance and to share technology. It is not something exclusive, nor are we trying to leave anyone outside. "
We will see how Johnson's comments feel in an Elysee who has already arrived with an extensive list of expectations before the call with Biden, requested during the weekend. "We hope that our allies recognize that the exchanges and consultations that should have been done were not, and that this raises a matter of trust," the French government said in a statement, a position that Washington said to understand but that I did not share, at least Until the call of Biden today, in which he did not apologize explicitly but he sought an approach with his oldest ally.
Background, a military framework between four countries and its strategies to counteract China's power in the Pacific. Australia, who already had an agreement signed with France since 2019, was completed by decanting by the highest-reaching American models. Although in Paris they already knew that the agreement could be derailled, the furious reaction derived from knowing that they had been excluded from the three-band negotiations, including the United Kingdom.
Macron sat youngerly that Biden would not have made any mention of the matter at his last meeting in June within the framework of the G-7. That same day he met with Boris Johnson and with the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, to finish closing the agreement that the light has seen a few days ago. Biden included a meeting at the agenda with both on Tuesday during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The US has argued that it did not correspond to an intermediary between Australia and France when it comes to maintaining the prior agreement, despite being the direct cause of the break and of having seriously weakened its vetusta alliance with Paris.
With the French elections just around the corner, Macron looks at all costs to give an image of firmness between the electorate and this "betrayal" weakens him, in addition to the numerous economic damage he supposes for the flakes after having canceled the operation.
Date Of Update: 23 September 2021, 00:59
