France's envoy to return to US after Biden-Macron call
Earlier Wednesday, Macron's office had said the French president was expecting “clarifications and clear commitments” from Biden, who had requested the call.
French officials described last week's U.S.-U.K.-Australia announcement as creating a “crisis of trust,” with Macron being formally notified only a few hours beforehand. The move had prompted fury in Paris, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian calling it a “stab in the back.”
France’s European Union partners agreed Tuesday to put the dispute at the top of the bloc’s political agenda, including at an EU summit next month.
Following the Macron-Biden call, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in New York with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell as the administration worked to repair the damage done to broader EU-U.S. relations by the deal.
Blinken spoke of the need for trans-Atlantic cooperation on any number issues “quite literally around the world, to include of course Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific and Europe and beyond.”
Borrell, taking note of the phone call, said he hoped to be able to “build a stronger confidence among us following the conversation that had been taking place this morning between President Biden and President Macron. I’m sure we’ll be working together.”
The French presidency categorically denied a report by Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper published on Wednesday saying Macron could offer the country’s permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council to the European Union if the bloc backs his plans on EU defense.
Psaki echoed Johnson's point that the creation of the new security alliance — which has been dubbed AUKUS — wasn't meant to freeze out other allies on Indo-Pacific strategy.
"During the conversation, the president reaffirmed the strategic importance of France — French and European nations I should say — in the Indo-Pacific region," Psaki said.
The deal has widely been seen as part of American efforts to counter a more assertive China in the Indo-Pacific region.