Joe Biden has admitted that the US acted “clumsily” in signing the famous submarine deal. The US president did this during a visit to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. He was very angry when the deal was signed.
For the start of the submarine frenzy we have to go back to September of this year. France was then outraged by a strategic partnership that Australia announced along with the United States and the United Kingdom. The new collaboration (AUKUS) resulted in, among other things, that a purchase of French submarines by Australia, which was concluded in 2016, was cancelled. Instead, the Australians will purchase nuclear-powered submarines from the Americans.
This led to a heated argument, with France even recalling ambassadors from the US and Australia. That had never happened before. Therefore, fireworks were expected from the meeting that US President Joe Biden would have in Rome on Friday with his French colleague Emmanuel Macron.
“I honestly felt like France had been informed well in advance that the deal was not going through,” Biden said there. This appeared not to be the case. “I think what happened was very inconvenient. We didn’t do that with much grace. I thought certain things had happened that actually hadn’t happened.” A remarkable confession from the president. “France is and remains an extremely valued partner. We have done so much together, we have suffered and celebrated together, and we share the same values. You can’t break that.”
Macron then said that what needed to be cleared had been cleared up. “What’s important is that we now have guarantees that something like this can’t happen again. What matters now is what we are going to do together in the coming weeks, months and years.”