{"id":10162,"date":"2021-09-23T09:34:10","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T09:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/?p=10162"},"modified":"2021-09-23T09:34:12","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T09:34:12","slug":"france-agrees-to-send-envoy-back-after-biden-macron-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/?p=10162&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"France agrees to send envoy back after Biden-Macron call"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mishaal Arshad CM Underground News<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>France and US agree to mend fences after Biden calls French counterpart.<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>US acknowledges error of judgment in brokering deal with Australia.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Outraged by the US, British and Australian deal, France recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>PARIS\/WASHINGTON: France has agreed to send its envoy back after President Joe Biden telephoned French President Emmanuel Macron and the White House acknowledged that it erred in brokering a deal for Australia to buy US submarines without consulting Paris.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a joint statement issued after the US and French presidents spoke by telephone for 30 minutes, the two leaders agreed to launch in-depth consultations to rebuild trust, and to meet in Europe at the end of October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They said Washington had committed to step up \u201csupport to counter-terrorism operations in the Sahel conducted by European states\u201d which US officials suggested meant a continuation of logistical support rather than deploying US special forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Biden\u2019s call to Macron was an attempt to mend fences after France accused the United States of stabbing it in the back when Australia ditched a $40 billion contract for conventional French submarines, and opted for nuclear-powered submarines to be built with US and British technology instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Outraged by the US, British and Australian deal, France recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe two leaders agreed that the situation would have benefited from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners,\u201d the joint US and French statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPresident Biden conveyed his ongoing commitment in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, interacting for the first time since the submarine crisis erupted, had a \u2018good exchange\u2019 on the margins of a wider meeting at the United Nations on Wednesday, a senior State Department official told reporters in a call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two top diplomats were likely to have a separate bilateral meeting on Thursday. \u201cWe do expect that they\u2019ll have some time together bilaterally tomorrow,\u201d the official said, and added that Washington \u2018very very much welcomed\u2019 France and European Union\u2019s deep engagement in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier on Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki described the call as \u201cfriendly\u201d and sounded hopeful about improving ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe president has had a friendly phone call with the president of France where they agreed to meet in October and continue close consultations and work together on a range of issues,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked if Biden apologized to Macron, she said: \u201cHe acknowledged that there could have been greater consultation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new US, Australian and British security partnership (AUKUS) was widely seen as designed to counter China\u2019s growing assertiveness in the Pacific but critics said it undercut Biden\u2019s broader effort to rally allies such as France to that cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Biden administration officials suggested the US commitment to \u201creinforcing its support to counter-terrorism operations in the Sahel\u201d region of West Africa meant a continuation of existing efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">France has a 5,000 strong counter-terrorism force fighting militants across the Sahel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is reducing its contingent to 2,500-3,000, moving more assets to Niger, and encouraging other European countries to provide special forces to work alongside local forces. The United States provides logistical and intelligence support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US military would continue to support French operations, but declined to speculate about potential increases or changes in US assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen I saw the verb reinforce, what I took away was that we\u2019re going to stay committed to that task,\u201d he told reporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mishaal Arshad CM Underground News France and US agree to mend fences after Biden calls French counterpart. US&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_appearance_grid":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,76,71,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","category-important-news","category-latest-news","category-world","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10164,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10162\/revisions\/10164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}