President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday held talks with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his first meeting with an American official since the scrapping of a submarine contract with Australia plunged relations into crisis.
The one-on-one meeting with Macron lasted around 40 minutes with "common agreement that we have an opportunity now to deepen and strengthen the coordination" even though "a lot of hard work remains to be done" a senior State Department official told reporters in Paris. The Elysée also confirmed the meeting, saying Blinken's visit to Paris would "contribute to restoring confidence".
Blinken had said he would have a chance during talks in Paris on Tuesday to discuss restoring French trust in the United States following a row over a new Indo-Pacific security pact between the US, Australia and Britain resulted in Canberra scuttling a $40 billion defence contract for French submarines.
Earlier, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian took Blinken on a walking tour of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs at Quai d'Orsay lasting about 90 minutes before the two counterparts sat down for a meeting alongside other officials from both countries.
Asked how he would reassure the French that the US could be trusted, Blinken said: "We'll have a chance to talk later."
The French government has said it was stabbed in the back by its close allies and that it would take time for the wounds to heal.
France briefly withdrew its ambassador to the Washington over the affair, before Macron and US President Joe Biden spoke by phone and agreed to hold in-depth consultations.
Initially, Blinken was set to meet French National Security Advisor Emmanuel Bonne at the presidential Élysée Palace on Monday, but was not expected to meet Macron.
Washington has conceded that there should have been more consultation with the French before the nuclear-powered submarine deal – part of the so-called AUKUS security pact between the United States, Australia and Britain – was announced on September 15.
Despite leaving France in the dark on the submarine deal and a major new agreement focused on the Indo-Pacific, the Biden administration wants to deepen cooperation with France in that region, Karen Donfried, US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, told reporters ahead of Blinken's trip.
Washington would also seek more cooperation with Paris on fighting Islamist militants in West Africa's Sahel region and find ways to support French efforts to strengthen European security, as long as those efforts did not undermine NATO, Donfried said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
