The new defence partnership between Britain, the US and Australia was announced last week and will give Australia access to nuclear-powered submarine technology.

France accused US President Joe Biden of stabbing it in the back and acting like his predecessor Donald Trump after Paris was pushed aside from a historic defence export contract to supply Australia with submarines.

Paris recalled ambassadors from the US and Australia.

Speaking a day after he met Biden in Washington, Johnson told reporters: “I just think it’s time for some of our dearest friends around the world to ‘prenez un grip’ about all this, ‘donnez-moi un break’, because this is fundamentally a great step forward for global security.”

He was translating the English phrases ‘get a grip’ and ‘give me a break’ literally into French.

“It is not trying to shoulder anybody out, it is not adversarial towards China, for instance, it is there to intensify links and friendship between three countries,” he said.