Submarine crisis: the ministers of the 27 in solidarity with France

On the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly, the French foreign minister again condemned the breach of the submarine contract with Australia linked to the birth of the security pact between Washington, London and Canberra.

As he has been doing for several days but this time on American soil, Jean-Yves Le Drian denounced a decision “brutal”, a “lack of consultation”, and an “breach of trust between allies”. It is akin to “reflexes from an era we hoped to be over”, he hammered, in a new clear allusion to the Trump era. Earlier in the day, France had received the support of the leaders of the European Union.

The Foreign Ministers of the Twenty Seven, “clearly expressed their solidarity with France” the High Representative of the Union for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrel, said from New York:

“During the discussions, the ministers expressed a clear solidarity with France and take advantage of this moment to call for greater cooperation with the European Union in the Indo-Pacific.”

Interviewed on an American channel, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission has also stepped up to the plate judging “unacceptable” the way Paris had been “processed”.

As for the President of the European Council, Charles Michel also denounced a “lack of loyalty” of the United States and pleaded for a strengthening of the “capacity for action” of the EU on the international scene.

To this outpouring of European solidarity with France, the United States responded with a surprise gesture of conciliation. Joe Biden has indeed promised to reopen the American borders, closed to Europeans for more than a year because of Covid-19.

And in the face of demands for “clarification” from Paris and Brussels, President Biden is “impatient” to discuss “the way forward” over the phone with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

This is what a senior American official said, confirming that the Democratic leader had requested such an interview. Emmanuel Macron having given up on going to New York.