Two weeks after the start of an unprecedented crisis between Paris and Washington, the two close transatlantic allies have taken another big step towards a lull. The French ambassador to the United States indeed returned to the American capital on Wednesday.
Philippe Etienne landed in the afternoon at an airport in the federal capital, we learned from the embassy. His recall to Paris “for consultations”, decided on September 17 by French President Emmanuel Macron, was a first between France and the United States.
A “blow in the back”
It was the most spectacular reaction of the French authorities to protest against the new partnership announced two days earlier by US President Joe Biden with Australia and the United Kingdom in the Indo-Pacific region, which had as collateral effect of torpedoing a mega-contract for submarines concluded by Paris with Canberra. The French government had denounced a “blow in the back” and a “brutal decision”, likening the method of the democratic president to the unilateralism so much decried by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.
Presidents Macron and Biden ended up agreeing, during a phone call on September 22, to try to turn the page. The French head of state announced that day the ambassador’s return to Washington. The two countries also decided to launch “a process of extensive consultations” to restore “confidence”.