US Vice President Kamala Harris on peace-seeking mission in Paris

Harris will hold four days of meetings in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders

US Vice President Kamala Harris kicks off a four-day visit to Paris on Tuesday, attending a conference on Libya and a peace forum. But the trip is also aimed at mending fences with France following the bitter diplomatic row over the US-Australia submarine deal which left the Franco-US friendship in tatters. 

Harris will hold four days of meetings in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders, delivering remarks at a peace forum and taking part in a multilateral conference on Libya.

The schedule includes a one-on-one sit-down with Macron on Wednesday where Harris will take up President Joe Biden’s recent overtures aimed at restoring ties strained by the AUKUS submarine deal

Biden told Macron last week he had been “clumsy” in keeping France out of the loop on a US-Australian deal on nuclear-powered submarines, a move that prompted France to take the highly unusual step of temporarily recalling its ambassador in Washington.

The deal undercut an agreement worth more than 56 billion euros struck by a French defense contractor to sell diesel-powered submarines to Australia.

“The relationship between the United States and France – and also the transatlantic relationship between the US and Europe – is really critical for us. And this is something that candidate Biden stressed throughout the campaign,” a senior White House official said.

“And from the very first days in office, President Biden and Vice President Harris have made strengthening our alliances a core element of what we want to do for our foreign policy.”