UK seeks smoother waters with France after subs row

Britain yesterday sought to turn a page with France after a cross-continental diplomatic crisis centred on alleged perfidy over a submarine contract with Australia.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson reached out to French President Emmanuel Macron for a telephone call, after Paris accused its UK, US and Australian allies of a "stab in the back" 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.

They also noted the "strategic significance" of UK-French cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and in Africa, it said.

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

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

The contract 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.

In a terse account of the Johnson call, Macron's office said the prime minister offered to "re-establish cooperation" and that the French president was "awaiting his proposals".