U.S. Vows Closer Ties with France on Space, Cyber Threats

(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris announced U.S. efforts to work more closely with France to combat cyber threats and to cooperate on space exploration and commercial development.

The initiatives followed Harris’s meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on the second day of a visit to Paris that’s aimed at raising the vice president’s international profile. 

Harris announced that the U.S. would support the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, which the White House described as “a voluntary commitment to work with the international community to advance cybersecurity and preserve the open, interoperable, secure, and reliable internet.”

“The United States looks forward to continued partnership with France and other governments, private sector, and civil society around the world to advance and promote norms of responsible behavior in cyberspace,” the White House said in a statement. 

U.S. officials also will engage in regular talks with their French counterparts on space cooperation, and the U.S. will join an international consortium called the Space Climate Observatory, aimed at combating climate change. 

Harris’s visit is part of a series of Biden administration overtures to Macron’s government after the French complained that they were blindsided by a deal for the U.S. and U.K. to supply nuclear submarines to Australia. The agreement scuttled a previous deal for Australia to buy French diesel-powered subs.

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