French President Emmanuel Macron announced, on Tuesday, the return of his country’s ambassador to the United States, tomorrow, Wednesday, about two weeks after he was summoned against the background of the “submarine deal” crisis between Paris and Washington.
This came during his participation in a press conference at the Elysee Palace, on the sidelines of the signing of a defense partnership agreement with Greece.
Macron said that the French ambassador to the United States, Ylepe Etienne, “will return to Washington on Wednesday, September 29, with a clear mandate to create conditions for the re-engagement between the two countries,” Radio Monte Carlo International reported.
He added that the United States “is a great historical ally and will remain so.”
He also stressed the need to “respect the sovereignty of the United States,” stressing at the same time the importance of Europe strengthening its defense and taking responsibility for its own defense.
In this context, Macron called on the Europeans to “abandon naivety” and “draw lessons” from the new strategic options of the United States that focus on its rivalry with China.
And he added, “We note that for more than 10 years, Washington has focused on its self-interests directed towards China and the Pacific.”
It is noteworthy that Macron made the decision to return his country’s ambassador to the United States last week, following a phone call with his American counterpart, Joe Biden.
Relations between France on the one hand and the United States and Australia on the other entered an open crisis, after Australia canceled, in mid-September, a deal to buy French submarines and replace them with American nuclear-powered ones.
The cancellation of the deal prompted Paris to describe the matter as “betrayal and a stab in the back.”
