PARIS: US President Joe Biden has requested early talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, France said on Sunday, in an apparent effort to mend fences after a row over a submarines contract sparked rare tensions between the allies.
The announcement came after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison dismissed French allegations that Canberra had lied about plans to cancel the agreement to buy French submarines, saying he had raised concerns over the deal “some months ago”.
Australia’s decision to abolish the French deal in favor of American nuclear power vessels sparked outrage in Paris, with Macron reviewing France representatives to Canberra and Washington in an unprecedented move.
French government representative Gabriel Attal said on Sunday that there would be a phone conversation between Biden and Macron “in the coming days” at request of the US president.
Macron will ask the US president for “clarification” after the announcement of a US-Australian-British defense pact that provoked Canberra’s cancellation of the huge contract for diesel-electric French vessels.
“We want explanations,” Attal said. The US had to answer for “what looks a lot like a major breach of trust”.
Meanwhile Morrison insisted, he and his ministers had made no secret of their issues with the French vessels.
“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.”
On Saturday French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had used undiplomatic language towards Australia, the US and Britain which is also part of a new three-way security pact announced on Wednesday that led to the rupture.
“There has been lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt,” Le Drian told France 2 television. The recall of the ambassadors 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”.
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