President Biden went for a bike ride at the beach on Sunday amid multiple national crises and he refused to answer reporters’ questions as he biked past them.
“Mr. President, what will you tell Emmanuel Macron?” a reporter asked as Biden sped by.
“When are you going to call Macron?” another reporter asked.
Biden is set to call French President Emmanuel Macron to resolve a diplomatic crisis that developed last week. France recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia in response to a joint agreement between the U. S., Australia, and the United Kingdom to provide nuclear submarines to Australia, scrapping a previous agreement to send French-made submarines Down Under.
“At the request of President Macron, I have decided to immediately recall our ambassadors to the United States and Australia to Paris for consultations,” French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement Friday.
“The abandonment of the ocean-class submarine project that Australia and France had been working on since 2016 and the announcement of a new partnership with the United States aimed at studying the possibility of future cooperation on nuclear-powered submarines constitute unacceptable behavior among allies and partners; their consequences affect the very concept we have of our alliances, our partnerships, and the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe,” the statement added.
Earlier in the week, Le Drian told a French radio station that the agreement, perceived as a challenge to China’s presence in the region, was a “stab in the back.” He also compared President Biden to former President Trump.
“This brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr. Trump used to do,” Le Drian said. “I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed t… (Read more)
