Angry over British PM Boris Johnson’s reluctance to try harder to improve relations with French President Emmanuel Macron after the row over France’s submarine deal with Australia, the US diplomats are urging UK to follow its lead and patch ties with Paris, The Guardian reports citing unnamed American diplomatic sources.
Though he stressed in mid-September that the UK is very proud of its very important relationship with France, BoJo later voiced frustration about French complaints following French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian statement that there’s a crisis of trust beyond the broken contract.
Le Drian spoke about France’s relations with London and Washington who earlier announced the AUKUS defence alliance with Canberra that entailed its exit from a hefty contract with France to construct 12 submarines.
Le Drian stressed that European countries should “put together their own priorities and strategy” and discuss it with the US, that needs to take into account the Europeans’ fundamental interests.
The US appeal toward UK comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent two days in France and Brussels trying to repair Washington’s relations with Paris and Brussels in the wake of the AUKUS signing.
Diplomatic sources, dubbing the British handling of the Australian cancellation of the French contract on submarines an unforced error, expressed hope that the UK would start thinking more strategically about its relations with Europe.
Meanwhile, Paris is doing its best to capitalise on Washington’s political embarrassment, winning concessions from the US over a strengthened European defence pillar inside NATO, increased US cooperation in fighting terrorism in the Sahel, and a recognition of the EU role’s legitimacy in the Indo-Pacificduring a special conference to be convened during French presidency of the EU in the first half of 2022.
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