French President Emmanuel Macron isn’t quite ready to forget his anger over the surprise that British and American officials will provide submarines to Australia, at the expense of France, despite an olive branch from President Joe Biden.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian kept the heat on U.S. officials following a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Le Drian, who played coy about whether he would meet Blinken at all this week, emphasized that Biden’s administration isn’t out of the woods yet, as far as Paris is concerned.
“The minister and his American counterpart discussed the terms and topics to be dealt with in an in-depth consultation process between the two countries aimed at restoring trust,” Le Drian’s team said in a summary of their meeting released Thursday. “He affirmed that a first step had been taken with the call between the two presidents but noted that it would take time to end the crisis between our two countries and would require actions.”
State Department officials struck a more collegial tone in their account of the conversation, with no reference to the “trust” issues that Le Drian has aired throughout the week.
MAJOR US-EU MEETING THREATENED BY FALLOUT FROM NUCLEAR SUBMARINE DEAL THAT BLINDSIDED FRANCE
“Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Le Drian spoke about plans for in-depth bilateral consultations on issues of strategic importance,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in his account of the meeting. “They discussed the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, which the United States welcomes, and the need for close cooperation with France and other European allies and partners active in the region. The Secretary and the Foreign Minister also engaged on our shared objectives in the Sahel.”
Biden agreed Wednesday to make a pilgrimage to meet Macron in Europe next month, likely on the margins of the G-20 meeting in Rome. And Blinken’s team has touted the forthcoming launch of the U.S.-European Union trade and technology council as another sign of American respect for France’s geopolitical clout.
“The U.S. very, very much welcomes France’s deep engagement, the EU’s deep engagement in the Indo-Pacific, that events like the Trade and Technology Council that we’re going to have next week in Pittsburgh are an opportunity to concert views between the U.S. and the EU, with France very much engaged, about how we collaborate both in security terms and in economic terms around Indo-Pacific issues and in managing China,” a senior State Department official told reporters late Wednesday. “So, that’s very much something that we plan on.”
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That statement raises the likelihood that the EU will keep the trade and technology council on the schedule, despite an initial push from France to cancel the talks, as European officials hesitate to push Biden’s team too far.
“If it does get canceled, that will be something we have to manage with the Americans. So far, the Americans have realized … they basically misjudged the situation,” a European diplomat said, on condition of anonymity. “[If the EU goes forward with] canceling TTC or postponing TTC, they might be less inclined to make nice.”
