Mr. Biden’s softer diplomacy skills will be put to the test when he meets with Mr. Macron hours after he arrives in Rome. In September, Mr. Biden’s administration caused a diplomatic row with the French after failing to notify them of its deal to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, an accord that gutted a $66 billion French project to build attack submarines.
The deal, announced as part of a new defense alliance with Britain and Australia, so infuriated the French that Mr. Macron recalled his country’s ambassador to the United States, Philippe Étienne, for several days. American officials, including Antony J. Blinken, the secretary of state, have streamed through France trying to repair the damage. Vice President Kamala Harris is due in Paris in November.
Célia Belin, a visiting fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, said in an interview that the Biden administration seemed to forget “the tasteful art of diplomacy.”
Since the blowup, Mr. Macron has spoken openly about the need for European nations to practice so-called strategic autonomy, a policy that would gradually mean countries like France would rely less on the United States for military assistance. As the summit gets underway, Europeans will be watching with interest about whether Mr. Biden supports such an initiative, Ms. Belin said.
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