British prime minister meets French president for first time in five years

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron met in Paris on March 10, 2023. This is the first in five years, apart from sporadic contacts on the margins of the G20 and the climate summit in 2021, a separate bilateral Franco-British summit. Relations between Britain and France in recent years have been marred by post-Brexit conflicts, problems with the transit of migrants to Britain from continental Europe, as well as the creation of the AUKUS bloc, which threw Paris out of the project to create submarines for Australia.

Following the meeting with Macron, Sunak said that he managed to reach agreements with the French president in the areas of illegal migration, energy and security. In particular, the British Prime Minister announced the creation of a new migrant detention center in northern France and a command center for law enforcement groups. An additional 500 troops will also be allocated to patrol French beaches, the contingent will be equipped with drones and other technologies to monitor unauthorized crossings of the English Channel. Sunak also announced changes to British law that would make it harder for criminal gangs to profit from illegal migration.

Sunak also announced the signing of a new agreement with France on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. In particular, this concerns the construction of a new power unit at the Sizewell nuclear power plant with a French reactor, the supply of electricity produced at French nuclear power plants, as well as work on connecting the power grids of the two countries. In addition, the British Prime Minister announced the intention of the countries to strengthen energy cooperation in the context of the consequences of hostilities in Ukraine for Europe.

“Through our ports and interconnectors, we can become a gateway to Europe for non-Russian gas. UK and France are working together to make people like [президент России Владимир] Putin, could never use our energy security as a weapon again,” Sunak said (quoted from message press service of the office of the British Prime Minister).

Speaking about cooperation with France in the field of defense, the prime minister noted that against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis, the European continent “is in danger” and therefore London and Paris “will be at the forefront of its defense.” To do this, according to the British prime minister, he agreed with Macron on the joint training of Ukrainian marines, “helping to give Ukraine a decisive advantage on the battlefield and help it win.”

In addition, Sunak said that France and Britain agreed to increase the interoperability of the armed forces, “using the full potential of the joint expeditionary force.” This includes “ensuring security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region with the coordination of the deployment of aircraft carriers.” In this region, London’s potential adversary, according to its policy documents, is China. The French side did not call Beijing an enemy.

“We will jointly explore the development of complex weapons such as air defense, combat aircraft and long-range weapons,” Sunak said. Earlier, Paris and London began preparations for the resuscitation of contacts on closer integration between such weapons systems as the projects of the British sixth-generation fighter Tempest and the Franco-German advanced combat aviation system.

A positive background for high-level contacts was the signing on February 27 by Sunak and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, of an agreement to resolve the problem of Northern Ireland (Ireland, which borders with it, is still a member of the EU). The agreement should make it easier to control goods coming from the UK to Northern Ireland and give the Irish authorities a say in the EU rules it must abide by.

Prior to the signing of the agreement, Northern Ireland continued to comply with some EU laws, entering into the same customs union with it, so that goods could freely cross the border into Ireland without checks. At the same time, goods arriving from England, Scotland and Wales were checked upon arrival at the ports of Northern Ireland. The UK finally left the EU on 1 January 2021.

Brexit has caused a number of problems in the relationship between France and the UK. An illustration of bilateral tension was the fishing conflict in May 2021. Despite the fact that, according to the compromise between Brussels and London, the fishing regulations remained the same until 2026, namely, both sides were allowed to fish in each other’s territorial waters, the authorities of the British island of Jersey off the coast of Normandy began to delay the issuance of licenses. France has threatened to limit the supply of electricity to the island.

Another point of contention was the AUKUS defense agreement between Australia, the UK and the US, concluded in September 2021. AUKUS’ first major initiative should be the construction of a nuclear submarine for Australia to contain China in the Pacific. Then Canberra terminated the contract for the construction and supply of French diesel submarines. This led to a diplomatic row and a cooling of relations between Paris and London.

Speaking about the meeting between Sunak and Macron, it is worth noting the favorable context with the settlement of the situation with Brexit, notes Pavel Timofeev, head of the department of regional problems and conflicts at IMEMO RAS. The full-scale Ukrainian conflict and the understanding of its long-term political and economic consequences have become an additional prerequisite for the rapprochement between London and Paris.

The rapprochement between Sunak and Macron is facilitated by a common background and comparable age, both worked in the financial sector and were ministers of the economy. So it is easier for a Frenchman to find a common language with the new British prime minister than with Liz Truss or Boris Johnson, the expert emphasizes. “In France, this meeting is viewed optimistically. In addition, at the end of March, the new British King Charles III visited France, in connection with which parallels are drawn in the French press up to the visit of Edward VII to Paris in 1904, which contributed to the formation of the Entente,” says Timofeev.

According to the expert, disagreements in the field of relations between London and the EU, affecting relations with Paris, have not gone away. This concerns how appropriate it is to move closer to the United States militarily, as well as the role of the British-backed countries of Eastern Europe in the EU, to which Paris is cool. But at the same time, Timofeev noted, London is keenly interested in the development of nuclear and green energy against the backdrop of problems with traditional energy resources. “Paris is a recognized leader in the peaceful atom in the EU. And the British side, seeking to revive the development of technology, is actively developing mini-reactors, in particular, Rolls-Royce is doing this, and it needs cooperation with the French.” he says.

Activity in France and in general in Europe is a consequence of the need for Sunak and Macron to demonstrate serious achievements against the backdrop of a generally negative socio-economic situation, albeit a stabilized one, says Sergey Shein, researcher at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics. Contact with France should cement the success of the EU deal in the eyes of British Conservative Party voters, Shein said. This is all the more significant because the most conflicting after leaving the European Union for London were relations not with pan-European institutions, but with French ones, the expert noted.