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US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron at their meeting in Rome
Photo: KEVIN LAMARQUE / REUTERS
After a serious rift between Paris and Washington, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron met for a meeting.
Biden said in a statement that the way in which a new security alliance with Australia had been engineered was "clumsy."
He had the impression that France had been informed before the new pact was announced, Biden said in Rome on Friday.
Because of the new alliance, which was announced without consultation, France had lost an armaments contract worth billions.
"I want to be very clear: France is an extremely, extremely valuable partner," emphasized Biden.
Macron also seemed to be trying hard to leave the argument behind.
What counts now is to ensure that there can be no more such misunderstandings in the future.
It is now a matter of creating an even stronger cooperation with the USA, said Macron.
From the Élysée Palace it had been said in advance that the meeting was about "restoring trust".
Washington officials said Biden and Macron would be discussing many topics, including working together for security in the Sahel and Indo-Pacific regions.
The meeting took place on the Friday before the G20 summit in the French Vatican embassy in Rome.
The dispute between the NATO partners arose when the USA announced a new security alliance for the South Pacific together with Great Britain and Australia without prior consultation with Paris or Brussels.
According to this, Australia should be given access to US technology for the construction and operation of nuclear submarines.
That meant France lost a multi-billion dollar diesel-powered submarine business to Australia.
This had led to angry reactions in Paris and raised doubts about the reliability of the transatlantic partnership.
As a result, France even withdrew its ambassadors in the partner countries for a time.
mfh / dpa
