Phone call with Macron: Biden admits mistakes

The dust is resettling: Following a telephone conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden, the Élysée Palace and the White House issued a joint press statement this evening. In it, the US side admits unusually direct to mistakes: „The situation would have benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and the European partners.“ The fact that these had not taken place around the submarine deal with Australia and Great Britain at the expense of France now seems to have been recognized in the White House as an omission: Biden had asked Macron for yesterday’s phone call.