French President Emmanuel Macron attends a European Union (EU) summit over video conference with French minister for European affairs Clement Beaune (L) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on March 25, 2021. Photo: VCG

European allies rallied cautiously around France on Tuesday after the US and Australian decision to strip Paris of a submarine supply contract, but some warned the dispute should not torpedo trade talks.

German Europe Minister Michael Roth said France's diplomatic crisis with the US was a "wake-up call for all of us" on the importance of uniting an often divided EU on foreign and security policy.

A furious France has accused the US, Australia and Britain of working behind its back to negotiate the AUKUS defense pact and replace Canberra's multi billion dollar order of French submarines with a US contract. The show of solidarity from Germany and the EU's top officials was welcomed by France, which said the breakdown of trust with Washington strengthened the case for Europe to set its own strategic course.

France's minister for European affairs Clement Beaune called the row "a European issue" not simply a French one, as he arrived at ministerial talks in Brussels, with the chaotic US pullout from Afghanistan in August also a source of irritation among EU members.

"I don't think France is overreacting and I don't think France should overreact. But when a situation... is serious, I think it's also our responsibility to state it very clearly," he said.

EU Council chief Charles Michel said he had a "frank, direct and lively exchange on AUKUS" with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.  

And EU internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, warned there was a growing feeling "that something is broken" in Europe's ties with Washington. "So it is probably time to pause and reset our EU-US relationship," he said in a speech in Washington. 

But others were more cautious. Gasper Dovzan, the Slovenian junior foreign minister who chaired the meeting, said that some ministers "of course expressed solidarity" with France "but also [have] a great interest in obtaining more information." EU vice president Maros Sefcovic said the next EU leaders summit would, after what had happened in Kabul and with the AUKUS treaty, "focus more on strategic autonomy."

The European Commission said it was considering whether the diplomatic storm would affect a gathering of a new EU-US Trade and Technology Council in Pittsburgh on September 29 to discuss ways to cooperate on trade and regulate big tech.