"Donnez-moi un break," he told reporters, calling for calm after tempers flared in France, and Paris recalled its ambassadors to Washington and Canberra.

France is angry about not being involved in talks over the pact, which resulted in Australia cancelling a multi-billion dollar deal for France to equip it with new diesel-powered submarines and instead acquire US nuclear ones.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Britain was a "third wheel" in the deal that was guilty of "constant opportunism".

But Johnson said it was "time for some of our dearest friends around the world to 'prenez un grip' (get a grip)".

"'Donnez-moi un break', because this is fundamentally a great step forward for global security," he told Sky News during a visit to Washington.

Rather than a snub to European neighbours, it was "three very like-minded allies standing shoulder to shoulder, creating a new partnership for the sharing of technology," he added.

"I find it very hard to see in this agreement anything not to like."

France on Monday cancelled a meeting set for this week between its Defence Minister Florence Parly and her British counterpart Ben Wallace.