Kamala Harris meets Macron after spat over subramine

US Vice President Kamala Harris and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed that their countries are ready to work together again, after a diplomatic drama surrounding a submarine deal that put the relationship at a historic low.

Harris met with Macron on Wednesday evening at the Elysee presidential palace, as part of a weeks-long effort by Washington to mend relations with France, America’s oldest ally.

Harris’ four-day trip to Paris comes after President Joe Biden told Macron the US had been ‘clumsy’ in handling the submarine issue, during a meeting in Rome, Italy on October 29. Biden didn’t formally apologise to Macron, but conceded the US should not have caught its oldest ally by surprise. The secretly negotiated US-British submarine deal with Australia led to a prior deal with France being scrapped.

Macron on Wednesday said he had ‘a very fruitful meeting’ with Biden. ‘We do share the view that we are at the beginning of a new era and our cooperation is absolutely critical for this one,’he said.

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