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PARIS (AP) – President Emmanuel Macron will meet in the coming days with President Joe Biden in what will be their first contact since a major diplomatic crisis erupted between France and the United States over a submarine deal with Australia, an official said on Sunday.
The phone call is at Biden’s request, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said, adding that there was “shock” and “anger” at the start. But now it’s time to try to move forward, he said.
What the French are now calling a “serious crisis” erupted following the sudden and unexpected end of a contract of at least $ 66 billion between France and Australia in 2016 for the construction of 12 sub- conventional diesel-electric sailors. Instead, Australia signed with the United States and Britain for eight nuclear-powered submarines. France insists it was not informed of the deal in advance.
France has recalled its ambassadors from the United States and Australia as a sign of the gravity of the crisis.
“What’s at stake in this business, this crisis … these are strategic issues before they are commercial issues,” Attal said in an interview on BFMTV. “The question is … the forces present, the balance, in the Indo-Pacific where part of our future is played out, and our relations with China.”
The U.S. deal reflects America’s pivot to the Indo-Pacific region, seen as increasingly strategic as China strengthens its influence there.
France feels that the agreement is taking shape in a region where it has long had a strong presence and that it too is working to strengthen, in addition to a five-year contract with Australia.
“France is an Indo-Pacific country,” Attal said, noting the French territory of New Caledonia, the French citizens living in the region and the military forces based there.
The Indo-Pacific is also a problem for Europe, he said.
Macron will seek an explanation from Biden on what led to a “major breach of trust,” the spokesperson added. “There was a moment of shock, of anger… Now we have to move on,” Attal said.
Friday evening, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian denounced what France considers a betrayal marked by “duplicity, contempt and lies”.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday that France “would have had every reason to know that we have deep and serious concerns” about the capacity of France’s Attack-class submarines which cannot respond to its strategic interests.
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