Blinken heads to Paris amid row
WASHINGTON/SYDNEY: US secretary of state Antony Blinken will hold talks in Paris next week in a bid to ease tensions after French anger over a submarine contract row, the state department announced on Friday.
Blinken will travel to Paris from Monday through Wednesday for a meeting of the OECD club of advanced market economies and meet French officials on “further strengthening the vital Us-france relationship”, spokesman Ned Price said.
Blinken and his French counterparts will discuss issues including “security in the Indopacific region, the climate crisis, economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the transatlantic relationship and working with our allies and partners to address global challenges and opportunities”, Price said.
Blinken will then fly from Paris to Mexico City for his first trip to the neighbouring country as the top US diplomat, a trip already announced by the Mexican government.
France was infuriated last month after Australia cancelled a multibillion-dollar deal for French submarines, saying it would build US nuclear versions in partnership with UK (trilateral Aukus security alliance) as tensions rise with China.
France accused the US of betrayal and Australia of backstabbing and briefly withdrew its envoy from Washington as a protest. Tensions began to ease when President Joe Biden spoke by telephone with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and acknowledged that the US could have communicated better with its long-time ally.
EU, Australia trade talks postponed amid crisis
A long-planned round of Australia-eu free trade talks have been postponed, a European official confirmed on Friday, after fury over Canberra’s decision to cancel the submarine contract. “The FTA trade round has been postponed until November,” an EU official in Canberra told AFP, throwing the future of the pact into doubt. Australian trade minister Dan Tehan, who was scheduled to travel to Europe for the talks, played down the decision in a statement to AFP.
The EU is Australia’s thirdbiggest trading partner. In 2020, the trade in goods between the two economies was valued at $41.75bn and at $30.15bn in services. The next round of talks was due to cover areas including trade, services, investment and intellectual property rights.