US
President Joe Biden has told France's Emmanuel Macron that the US was
"clumsy" over a security pact signed between the UK, US, and Australia
that lost France billions.
It
was the first meeting between the two leaders since the Aukus pact -
which will let Australia build nuclear-powered submarines - was agreed.
Aukus caused a row with France, which lost a $37bn deal with Australia.
Mr Macron said it was important to "look to the future".
The meeting between the two presidents took place at France's Vatican embassy in Rome, Villa Bonaparte.
It
was part of a series of meetings between the US president and world
leaders ahead of the G20 summit of major economies this weekend and next
week's UN climate summit, COP26, in Scotland.
"What
we did was clumsy," Mr Biden said. "I was under the impression that
France had been informed long before that the deal was not going
through, honest to God."
The
Aukus pact, which will also cover AI and other technologies, is one of
Australia's biggest defence partnerships in decades, and is seen as an
effort to counter China.
It scuppered a deal signed by Australia in 2016 for France to build 12 conventional submarines.
At
the time, France's foreign minister called the security pact "a stab in
the back", and France temporarily recalled its US and Australian
ambassadors.
Speaking
after meeting Mr Biden on Friday, Mr Macron told reporters: "Trust is
like love, declarations are good, but proof is better." The two leaders
also spoke about climate change, counter-terrorism in West Africa and
European defence.
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