The United States and Britain sought Sunday to smooth tensions with Paris over a new security pact with Australia, with US President Joe Biden requesting early talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, hoping to end a frantic stretch of public snubs and behind-the-scenes exchanges between the two allies.
The two leaders have not spoken since French leaders erupted last week at Biden’s announcement that the United States was forming a new defense alliance with Australia and the United Kingdom focused on the Indo-Pacific. As part of the deal, the United States will share nuclear submarine technology with Australia, prompting the Australians to drop a $66 billion submarine contract with France.
The announcement of the defence alliance, and Australia’s related decision to tear up a deal to buy French submarines in favour of American nuclear-powered vessels, sparked outrage in Paris, with Macron recalling France’s ambassadors to Canberra and Washington in an unprecedented move.
But on Sunday British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tried to downplay France’s concerns about the deal, saying the pact was “not meant to be exclusionary… it’s not something that anybody needs to worry about and particularly not our French friends”.
“We want explanations,” Attal said, adding that the US had to answer for “what looks a lot like a major breach of trust”.
The recall of the ambassadors to Australia and the US—for the first time in the history of relations with the countries—was “to show how unhappy we are and that there is a serious crisis between us”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday.
“There has been lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt,” Le Drian told French television.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday rejected the accusation that Canberra had lied, saying he had raised concerns over the now-scuppered subs deal “some months ago”.
“I think they would have had every reason to know that we had deep and grave concerns,” he told reporters in Sydney. “We made very clear that we would be making a decision based on our strategic national interest.”
