US meeting with European allies including France canceled

The meeting was one of the three planned get-togethers that would bring together US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, among other countries, for the first time since Washington and Paris, plunged into an unprecedented diplomatic crisis last week.

The row erupted after Australia canceled an order for conventional submarines from France and said instead it would build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with US and British technology under a new security partnership with those countries that came after months of secret talks.

The decision enraged France and on Monday in New York, Le Drian accused US President Joe Biden’s administration of continuing his predecessor Donald Trump’s trends of “unilateralism, unpredictability, brutality and not respecting your partner.”

France recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia on Friday.

On Tuesday, Germany joined France in berating the United States for negotiating a security pact in secret.

Senior State Department officials, in a briefing with reporters, said a meeting that was planned between the United States, France, Germany, and Britain on Wednesday was no longer happening but did not say whether the cancellation was linked to the submarine spat.

RHM/PR