Emmanuel Macron has warned of "serious problems" for France-UK relations after the favourite to be the next British prime minister refused to say if the French president was "friend or foe".
Mr Macron reacted to remarks made by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who said the jury was out on the French leader.
Mr Macron insisted the UK remained an ally, despite the occasional error made by its leaders.
And Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Mr Macron was a "good buddy" of the UK.
Senior politicians have accused Ms Truss, who is the frontrunner in the contest to succeed Mr Johnson as prime minister next month, of damaging the UK's relationship with France, a close ally.
Relations between France and the UK - both key members of the Nato military alliance - have been rocky in recent years, particularly after the latter's departure from the European Union.
Ms Truss - the UK's top diplomat - was asked about French relations during a Conservative Party event, where she and her leadership rival, Rishi Sunak, took questions from party members.
She said "the jury was out" on whether Mr Macron was a friend or foe, and she would judge him on "deeds not words", prompting cheers and applause from the audience.
Her comments came at the end of the leadership event - known as a hustings - during a series of quickfire questions posed by the host.
When asked the same question, Mr Sunak said Mr Macron was a "friend".
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Algeria on Friday, Mr Macron was asked his views on Ms Truss's comments about him.
After a long pause, he said "it's never good to lose your bearings too much in life".
He said he would have given a similar response to Mr Sunak's, had he been asked the same question about the next leader of the UK.
"If, between us as French and British people, we aren't able to say if we're friends or foes - the term isn't neutral - we're heading towards serious problems," Mr Macron said.
He said the UK was "a friendly, strong, ally nation, regardless of its leaders, and sometimes in spite of and beyond its leaders, or any potential slip-ups they make when playing to the gallery."
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