ROME — After a six-week diplomatic spat that involved a scuttled nuclear-powered submarine deal and a recalled ambassador, President Biden began a one-on-one effort to mend fences with President Emmanuel Macron of France by saying U.S. handling of the matter had been “clumsy.”
“What we did was clumsy,” Mr. Biden told reporters, sitting beside Mr. Macron just before they began a private meeting. “It was not done with a lot of grace.”
He added, “I had been under the impression long before that France had been informed.”
France had an agreement to build conventionally powered submarines for Australia’s navy, but last month the United States and Britain announced their own deal with Australia for nuclear-powered subs, instead. Australia called off the deal with France, whose officials had not been told that a pact with the Americans and British was in the works, infuriating Mr. Macron and others in his government.
Washington’s European allies were already irritated by the handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which they said Mr. Biden ordered without consulting them. The treatment of the French submarine deal, they said, was further evidence of American dismissiveness.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/world/europe/biden-macron-submarine-deal.html
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