France is still angry about the new Indo-Pacific security alliance, increased tension

A phone call this week between US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron is likely to ease some of the outrage over France’s exclusion from the new Indo-Pacific alliance and the cancellation of the submarine deal. However, it appears that France’s anger over the new alliance remains the same. After meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Eve Ledrian described the situation as a “crisis” that will take time to recover. Indeed, the US, Australia and Britain have kept France out of the new Indo-Pacific security alliance. The US, Australia and Britain have announced a new tripartite security alliance ‘Ocus’. A $100 billion deal was signed between France and Australia to build diesel submarines. France is unhappy that the deal to build diesel submarines for Australia will end under the terms of the new Ocus initiative. According to Lidrian, he and Blinken “discussed the terms and topics that will emerge in the process of intensive consultations between the two countries with the aim of restoring trust”. According to a statement by the French Foreign Ministry, Le Drian said, “The first step in this direction has been taken with the phone conversation between the two presidents, but this crisis between the two countries will take time to end and for this In the phone conversation, Macron also told Biden that he had decided to send the French ambassador to America. In an unprecedented move, France had withdrawn its ambassador from America. Blinken said he would work closely with Lidrian on a “deep-discussed process to move forward” but avoided questions about whether the US considered the situation a “crisis” and whether he would apologize to France. “We recognize that this will take time and hard work, and it will need to be accomplished with not just words but actions, and I am committed to working with Lidrian in this important endeavour,” the US Secretary of State said. Personally, I would just say that he and I have been good friends for a long time, he is someone I greatly respect. It requires hard work.