Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will head to France for a major summit with Emmanuel Macron in March.
The two leaders will meet in Paris for talks covering issues including security, the economy and measures to tackle the small boats carrying migrants across the English Channel.
It will be the first UK-France summit since 2018 and marks the two leaders’ efforts to repair relations which have been strained by Brexit and disputes over the Channel issues.
“French President Emmanuel Macron will host the Prime Minister for a UK-France summit on March 10,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
“The idea of this summit was discussed by the two leaders during their first phone call in October 2022.
“It will be the first meeting of this kind since 2018 and an opportunity to deepen co-operation between the UK and France in a huge range of areas including security, climate and energy, the economy, migration and shared foreign policy goals.”
The spokesman said “you can certainly expect” the issue of small boats to come up “given it is high on the priority list” for the Prime Minister.
Relations between Mr Sunak and Mr Macron appear to be much more cordial than those between the French president and his predecessor Liz Truss.
During her campaign to be Tory leader and prime minister she said “the jury’s out” when asked whether Mr Macron was “friend or foe”.
