Australia pulled out of a $66bn (£48bn) contract for 12 diesel-electric-powered submarines, signed back in 2016, in order to opt instead for nuclear-powered submarines to be developed with the US and the UK. The secretive and sudden cancellation of the contract has created a crisis of trust between Paris on the one hand, and London, Canberra and Washington on the other.
But senior US diplomats including the US secretary of state, Ant ony Blinken, spent two days in France and Brussels trying to repair relations after French leaders made clear they felt the trio of nations had gone behind France’s back.
Blinken met the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, in Paris on October 5. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, also met with the French foreign policy adviser Emmanuel Bonne. Emmanuel Macron is also due to hold a bilateral face-to-face meeting with Biden at the G20 summit in Rome.
This story is from the October 18, 2021 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the October 18, 2021 edition of The Guardian.
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