The US president and his French counterpart met at France’s Vatican embassy in Rome on Friday, ahead of the G20 leaders’ summit this weekend, for their first in-person discussion since an astonished Macron was left feeling betrayed and humiliated by September’s security deal.

As a result of the “Aukus” pact between the US, Australia and the UK, Australia tore up a troubled $66bn (£48bn) contract signed with France to build six diesel-powered submarines in favour of a deal with the US for eight nuclear-powered submarines. It was the first time the US had offered to share its nuclear technology with a third party other than the UK.

Sitting next to Macron before a bilateral meeting, Biden also implied that he thought Australia had already informed France that it was cancelling its submarine contract.