In the run-up to the G20 summit in Rome, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron met on Friday. The topics: quite serious. The scenes: almost funny and curious.
The focus of the meeting in Rome was the submarine conflict in September between the USA, Australia and France. On the subject, conciliatory tones were struck.
“What we did was awkward,” admitted Biden on Friday at the meeting in the French embassy at the Holy See. “It wasn’t done with a lot of elegance.”
And Biden and Macron also lined up clumsily. Both heads of state were literally in close contact: at the reception, the presidential duo were demonstratively close, they hugged, Macron clumsily grabbed Biden’s hand and stared at the camera.
French President Macron received the US President at the French Embassy in RomePhoto: LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
At the subsequent press conference it went on like this: there is patting, grimaces are pulled and when the two want to shake hands, they don’t seem to really manage it. Both look at each other a bit puzzled, are clumsy, reach over the other’s hand until they finally shake hands with a smile.
Biden touched Macron lightly several times during the statement, as if to reassure himPhoto: LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
Done: In the end, the two of them grab the handshakePhoto: KEVIN LAMARQUE / REUTERS
Biden: “France is an extremely valuable partner”
Biden said after the meeting that he had the impression that France had been informed before the announcement of the new submarine pact. 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 said that 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 Elysée Palace it had been said in advance that the meeting was about “restoring trust”.
The dispute between the NATO partners came when the USA announced a new security alliance for the South Pacific with Great Britain and Australia in September. 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 to the partner countries for a time.