President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron smiled for the press before their meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Italy, a photo opportunity intended to put more than a month of diplomatic tensions behind them.
The leaders’ conversation at the French Embassy to the Holy See in Rome was their first in-person discussion since Macron recalled his country’s top envoy to the United States for the first time in more than a century. That decision came in response to Biden’s announcement of a new national security alliance with the United Kingdom and Australia.
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“What we did was clumsy. It was not done with a lot of grace,” Biden said later Friday beside Macron inside the building. “I had been under the impression long before that France had been informed.”
National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters flying with the president on Air Force One the Macron meeting would “cover the waterfront in terms of issues facing the U.S.-France alliance.” That includes “counterterrorism in the Middle East to great power competition to economic, trade, and technology issues,” according to Sullivan.
“I do expect there will be a statement coming out of the meeting,” Sullivan said. “I think it will be a forward-looking statement that details areas of cooperation between the U.S. and France in counterterrorism, on the Indo-Pacific, on issues related to how we deepen our own dialogues in energy and technology and other areas.”
The U.S. pact with the U.K. to aid Australia in building eight nuclear-powered submarines scuttled Australia’s billion-dollar deal with France for 12 diesel-electric submarines. The U.S. described the drama as stemming from miscommunication as Biden’s administration pivots to the Indo-Pacific to counter China’s rise in the region.
But Gerard Araud, a former French ambassador to the U.S., told Politico this week there are still concerns Biden will borrow from former President Donald Trump’s inward-looking foreign policy playbook and be unpredictable in his dealings with those abroad.
White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield defended Biden’s international credibility from Washington on Friday morning, saying trust in the U.S. “is strong and is continuing to grow.”
“He believes firmly that we are stronger when we work with our allies and partners,” she told CNN.
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Vice President Kamala Harris will follow up Biden’s meeting by speaking with Macron during a visit to Paris next month.
