
Biden set to hold high-stakes call with Macron amid diplomatic crisis
CNN
President Joe Biden is set to hold his first conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday after a major diplomatic crisis exploded between the men over a deal to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
The talks are expected to be tense. Macron has mostly withheld comment publicly on the dispute, waiting to air his rage directly to Biden. But other officials in his government have spared nothing in describing France's shock and fury at the submarine agreement, which deprived France of a major contract of its own and left Paris feeling excluded and diminished.
Biden himself has ignored all questions on the France dispute since the crisis erupted at the end of last week, but officials said he was surprised by the outsized reaction from Paris and wanted to smooth things over with his counterpart, aiming to lower the temperature over the phone.













