Biden and French President Macron set October meeting following unprecedented rift

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to meet in person next month when they spoke by phone Wednesday, French and U.S. officials said, as the two leaders seek to make peace after a secret arms deal led to an unprecedented diplomatic rupture between Washington and its oldest ally.

A White House statement suggested regret over the way the episode unfolded. “The two leaders agreed that the situation would ahve benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners,” the statement said. “President Biden conveyed his ongoing commitment in that regard.” The White House said Biden and Macron will meet in Europe at the end of October. Both are scheduled to attend the Group of 20 summit in Rome at that time.

The statement also said the ambassador to France would return to Washington next week. Macron had recalled Ambassador Philippe Etienne to Paris in the days after the announcement. Macron had been said to want an apology from Biden, but the White House statement stopped just short saying there had been one. It said the two leaders agreed to “open a process of in-depth consultations,” but it was not precise about what that means. In Paris, an Élysée official said ahead of the call Wednesday that Macron and Biden will address “the crisis of confidence which led to the recall of our ambassador, and to take stock of the modalities of a re-engagement.”

The conversation took place Wednesday morning in Washington, before Biden convenes a virtual summit on the global coronavirus pandemic later Wednesday. Macron was not among the leaders participating. The White House has said that Biden requested a conversation to ease tension caused by the announcement a week ago that the United States would sell nuclear submarines to Australia. The deal effectively cancels one under which Australia had been set to purchase less capable French vessels.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-and-french-president-macron-to-hold-peacemaking-call-wednesday/2021/09/22/4fe3cd60-1bae-11ec-bcb8-0cb135811007_story.html

[rsdsharp]

1. For the life of me, I don't see why France is pissed at us.

I understand them being upset by Australia pulling out, but France wouldn’t sell what the Aussies wanted; we would.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. I think it's simple

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ETA to use the correct currency designation -

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[rsdsharp]

3. They'da got the money if they didn't insist on converting the subs to diesel.

That’s not our fault.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. It's possible

they were working a long-term deal and were still negotiating, and then in we come and that is probably what caused France to react so strongly.

France and the U.S. have had centuries of a "love/hate" relationship (some of it due to their issues with the UK) so I expect it will all get patched up.

[TomCADem]

5. Because Australia Preferred a Nuclear Sub Over a French Built Diesel

France has had a scandal filled history of building naval ships such as the well known failures associated with its flag ship aircraft carrier. So, having Australia opt for a nuclear powered sub over a french built sub is a huge black eye.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_aircraft_carrier_Charles_de_Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle entered sea trials in 1999. These identified the need to extend the flight deck to safely operate the E-2C Hawkeye.[14] This operation sparked negative publicity, however, as the same tests had been conducted on both Foch and Clemenceau when the F-8E (FN) Crusader fighter had been introduced. The 5 million francs for the extension was 0.025% of the total budget for the Charles de Gaulle project. On 28 February 2000, a nuclear reactor trial triggered the combustion of additional isolation elements, producing a smoke incident.[citation needed]

The ship left Toulon for her fourteenth and final sea trial on 24 October 2000. During the night of 9–10 November, in the Western Atlantic while en route toward Norfolk, Virginia, the port propeller broke, and the ship had to return to Toulon to have a replacement fitted.[18] The investigations that followed showed similar structural faults in the other propeller and in the spare propellers: bubbles in the one-piece copper-aluminium alloy propellers near the centre.[citation needed] Although the supplier, Atlantic Industrie, was not believed to have intentionally been at fault, it was nevertheless blamed for poor-quality construction.[19] Not long after the French defense minister ordered an investigation on quality management, a fire destroyed the archives of the supplier.[14][20] As a temporary solution, the less advanced spare propellers of Clemenceau were used, limiting the maximum speed to 25 knots (44 km/h) instead of the contractual 27 knots (50 km/h).[14]

On 5 March 2001, Charles de Gaulle returned to sea with the ex-Clemenceau propellers and reached 25.2 knots (47 km/h) on her trials.

On 16 September 2001 the French press reported slightly higher than acceptable radioactivity levels aboard Charles de Gaulle, thought to be caused by a faulty isolation element. It was later discovered that the radioactivity levels matched the design, but that the regulations concerning acceptable radioactivity levels had changed. While the United States was preparing its response to the September 11 attacks in the form of Operation Enduring Freedom, French media complained about the lack of deployable French military power. At the same time, the Defence Commission reported the maintenance of the Fleet to be substandard. In this context, Charles de Gaulle, then under repairs, was again an object of criticism, with former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing describing it as a "half-aircraft-carrier" and requesting launching of the second carrier vessel (named PA2) to guarantee an availability rate of 100%.

[rsdsharp]

6. France HAS nuclear subs. They wanted to convert them to diesel

for Australia. The Aussies wanted nukes. Sell what the customer wants. It’s not like we under cut them. They refused to sell the product.