LONDON, 26 September 2021, (TON): Britain sought to turn a page with France following a cross-continental diplomatic crisis centred on alleged deceit over a submarine contract with Australia.

French President Emmanuel Macron was left furious last week after Australia ditched a mega-deal to buy diesel submarines from France in favour of nuclear-powered US ones, under an agreement secured during secret talks facilitated by Britain.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reached out to Macron for a telephone call after Paris accused its UK, US and Australian allies of a “stab in the back” over the deal and dismissed London as a “junior partner” to Washington.

Johnson and Macron “reaffirmed the importance of the UK-France relationship and agreed to continue working closely together around the world on our shared agenda, through Nato and bilaterally”, Downing Street said in a statement.

It said “they also noted the “strategic significance” of UK-French cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and sub-Saharan Africa.

They agreed to “intensify cooperation” against cross-Channel people-smugglers, and to stay in contact over post-Brexit fisheries licences and trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.

The contract for nuclear submarines that sparked the diplomatic crisis forms the centrepiece of a new strategic alliance involving Australia, Britain and the United States known as AUKUS, which is widely seen as an attempt to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.

France and other Nato allies are not in the mix, although the AUKUS trio have stressed it is not meant to be exclusionary.