French President Emmanuel Macron hailed a “new start” in Franco-British ties at a bilateral summit in Paris with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, aiming at restoring close ties after years of tensions between the two countries.
Macron said his talks with Sunak marked a "new start" between Paris and London after the tensions caused by Brexit and other bilateral headaches.
Macron added that French and British friendship is sometimes broken during sport matches – a nod to France knocking England out of the World Cup last year – but that history links the two countries.
Sunak struck a very similar tone, noting “challenges” in Franco-British relations over recent years – while underlining that “today’s meeting does mark a new beginning, an entente renewed”.
The prime minister was making a historical nod imbued with significance, referring to the Entente Cordiale struck in 1904 after King Edward VII crossed the Channel to consign to history centuries of rivalry; a deal that saw French and British soldiers fight side by side in two world wars.
Sunak and Macron also unveiled a new deal to combat illegal migration across the Channel.
London will step up funding to France over the next three years to total 541 million euros ($575 million), allowing the deployment of "hundreds" of extra French law enforcement officers along the Channel coast to stop the illegal migration, the British government said in a statement.
Under the deal, for the first time the UK will help fund a detention centre in France to enhance its ability to cope with the number of people being trafficked across the Channel.
"We don't need to manage this problem, we need to break it," said Sunak.
"And today, we have gone further than ever before to put an end to this disgusting trade in human life," the prime minister added.
"Emmanuel and I share the same belief: criminal gangs should not get to decide who comes to our countries."
The new funding from the UK this year is already more than double last year's package worth over 70 million euros that increased the number of French police patrolling Channel shores.
"Over the next three years, the UK's contribution towards this package will be 141 million euros in 2023-24, 191 million in 2024-25 euros and 209 million in 2025-6 euros," the British government said.
Accompanied by seven ministers on each side, Macron and Sunak also met business leaders from both countries.
Sunak, who became Britain's prime minister in October, is hoping to capitalise on renewed goodwill with France and the EU after he struck the Windsor Framework. This new agreement hailed as the solution to the previously intractable Northern Ireland border problem – as well as for creating a pathway to deeper ties between the UK and EU.
In a further sign of the UK’s keenness to restore good reliations with France, King Charles III will visit France later this month for his first state visit as monarch.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
