The three-member countries of the Aukus alliance (United States, United Kingdom, and Australia) are meeting this Monday, March 13, in the United States for a summit that will address the issue of nuclear submarines expected by Australia. It must be said that with this tripartite partnership intended to counter the influence of China in the Indo-Pacific zone, France saw an arms contract of several billion euros with Canberra for the purchase of a dozen submarines.
The summit will be chaired by Joe Biden in San Diego (California) and after 18 months of negotiations, Australia is expected to formalize the purchase of five to eight American nuclear-powered submarines.
In the current period, the diplomatic relations between Paris and Washington appear to have been sidelined. However, in the year 2021, the French authorities did not express strong enough condemnations regarding the Aukus alliance. Jean-Yves Le Drian, the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs, characterized the move as a “stab in the back of Australia” and a “brutal decision by the United States,” leading to the unprecedented recall of the French ambassador from Washington. In the aftermath of this event, the American administration has undertaken significant efforts to foster its relationship with its long-standing French ally, including a visit to Paris by President Joe Biden and a subsequent state visit with full honors for French President Emmanuel Macron in Washington, which marked the first such visit by a foreign head of state to the United States.