U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron had a phone call on Friday in which they discussed strengthening European defenses.
The two leaders "discussed efforts to enable a stronger and more capable European defense while ensuring complementarity with NATO," the White House said in a statement.
Biden will meet Macron in Rome later this month, according to the statement. Biden looked forward to the chance to "take stock of the many areas of US-France cooperation, and reinforce our shared interests."
The two leaders spoke on September 22 for their first conversation since diplomatic crisis erupted over a deal to equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
A joint statement between the United States and France after the 30-minute call said they “agreed that the situation would have benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners.”
“The two leaders have decided to open a process of in-depth consultations, aimed at creating the conditions for ensuring confidence and proposing concrete measures toward common objectives,” the statement read.
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