Clumsy », that is, clumsy, clumsy. US President Joe Biden does not admit to having apologized (“To whom?”, He replied to a reporter), but he came close, in the interview with French President Emmanuel Macron at Villa Bonaparte, the seat of the French embassy at the Vatican, in Rome, in the meeting that was held on Friday 29 October, the day before the opening of the G20 in Rome. .
Biden: on the Aukus USA dossier they acted clumsily
“What we did was clumsy, it wasn’t done very elegantly,” Biden said, referring to the negotiations with Great Britain and Australia – the Aukus – which led to the exclusion of France in the strategies on the Indo-Pacific area and the cancellation of a maxi-order for 12 French submarines by Canberra: a decision defined as “a stab in the back” by the French Foreign Minister Jean_Yves Le Drian, generally prudent and measured. “I thought I understood, a long time ago – added Biden – that France had been informed”.
Macron: clarified what needed clarification
With elegance, Macron – who waited for his guest for an hour and a half – quickly passed on. “We have clarified what needed to be clarified,” he said, focusing mainly on the new collaboration between the United States and the European Union. “Essential clarifications have been provided” on the issues of European sovereignty and defense, Macron said, in order to “strengthen coordination, strategic collaboration between the European Union and NATO”.
More quickly, President Macron hinted at the recognition of the “importance of the European strategy on the Indo-Pacific”, a chessboard in which France is present militarily in defense of its overseas territories but which includes countries that are important for the entire EU; and the “fight against terrorism” in the Sahel, where – according to the New York Times – Washington could send more drones and reconnaissance aircraft to the base near Nagadez, in Niger.
Paris asks the US to recognize the role of European defense
It is not cheap, actually. The recognition of the role of European defense – also at the center of the conversation between Biden and Mario Draghi – and the greater effort in the Sahel are steps that Paris has been asking of Washington for some time, and the Aukus crisis seems to have been transformed into an opportunity. It remains to be seen to what extent American support for a European defense that unfolds alongside and not within NATO can be transferred from words to deeds.