Biden tells Macron the submarine deal that caused a major rift with France was ‘clumsy’ and not handled ‘with a lot of grace’

• President Joe Biden offered a conciliatory message to his French counterpart on Friday.
• Meeting at the Vatican in Rome, Biden acknowledged the submarine rift between the longtime allies.
• "To use an English phrase, what we did was clumsy – not done with a lot of grace," Biden said.

In their first face-to-face meeting since a submarine deal debacle caused a major rift between the US and France, President Joe Biden acknowledged to his French counterpart that the US could have handled things better.

"To use an English phrase, what we did was clumsy – not done with a lot of grace," Biden told French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday. "I had been under the impression long before that France had been informed."

-CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 29, 2021

At times, it was difficult to hear exactly what the presidents were saying in the crowded hall with cameras flashing and translators speaking alongside them.

In September, Australia, the UK, and the US announced a new trilateral security partnership that would, among other things, see Australia obtain nuclear-powered submarines with the support of the US and the UK, both of which operate very capable nuclear-powered attack submarines, to better address regional security concerns.

Not only was France not in the loop on these negotiations, but it found out only hours before the announcement that Australia was backing out of plans to purchase a dozen diesel-electric Shortfin Barracuda submarines from France, a lucrative deal worth more than $60 billion.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister, characterized the AUKUS trilateral security partnership that appeared to upend France's arrangements with Australia as a "stab in the back."

In his criticisms of US actions, Le Drian said that "this brutal, unilateral, unpredictable decision looks very much like what Mr. Trump used to do."

Amid tensions, France recalled its ambassador to the US for the first time in the history of the alliance.

In the days that followed, Biden and Macron spoke over the phone, and a joint readout of the call said that the two leaders "agreed that the situation would have benefited from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners."

During their meeting Friday in Rome ahead of the Group of 20 leadership summit, Macron said that they had "clarified together what we had to clarify" and emphasized continued cooperation. He added that "what really matters now is what we will do together in the coming weeks, coming months, coming years."