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Abstract The complex coupled short‐pulse equation (ccSPE) describes the propagation of ultrashort optical pulses in nonlinear birefringent fibers. The system admits a variety of vector soliton solutions: fundamental solitons, fundamental breathers, composite breathers (generic or nongeneric), as well as so‐called self‐symmetric composite solitons. In this work, we use the dressing method and the Darboux matrices corresponding to the various types of solitons to investigate soliton interactions in the focusing ccSPE. The study combines refactorization problems on generators of certain rational loop groups, and long‐time asymptotics of these generators, as well as the main refactorization theorem for the dressing factors that leads to the Yang–Baxter property for the refactorization map and the vector soliton interactions. Among the results obtained in this paper, we derive explicit formulas for the polarization shift of fundamental solitons that are the analog of the well‐known formulas for the interaction of vector solitons in the Manakov system. Our study also reveals that upon interacting with a fundamental breather, a fundamental soliton becomes a fundamental breather and, conversely, that the interaction of two fundamental breathers generically yields two fundamental breathers with a polarization shifts, but may also result into a fundamental soliton and a fundamental breather. Explicit formulas for the coefficients that characterize the fundamental breathers, as well as for their polarization vectors are obtained. The interactions of other types of solitons are also derived and discussed in detail and illustrated with plots. New Yang–Baxter maps are obtained in the process.