Sunak meets Macron and signals shift in British attitude towards France and Europe

The leaders of France and the UK vaunted progress in the fight against illegal migration across the English Channel, and promised greater co-operation in energy and defence at the first Franco-British summit in five years on Friday.

But the most striking development was the apparent transformation of the British attitude towards France and Europe.

“We left the EU, but we didn’t leave Europe,” prime minister Rishi Sunak told a press conference at the Élysée Palace. “As Emmanuel [Macron] said, Brexit didn’t change geography. We want to have a close, co-operative, collaborative relationship with our European partners and allies, and of course that starts with our nearest neighbour, France. We are writing a new chapter in this relationship.”

A few minutes earlier, Mr Sunak admitted that “the relationship between our two countries has had its challenges in recent years”. Mr Macron’s entourage cringed when Boris Johnson put his feet on the table at the Élysée. Liz Truss said she didn’t know whether Macron was “friend or foe”.

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Mr Sunak and Mr Macron are both sons of doctors. Both worked in high finance and rose quickly to their country’s highest office with little political experience. Mr Sunak is age 42, Mr Macron 45.

“There are some things you can control and some things you cannot,” Mr Macron said after Mr Sunak thanked him for his expression of sympathy on the death of Queen Elizabeth. “One thing you cannot control is who you get as an international counterpart. I feel very fortunate to be serving alongside you and incredibly excited about the future we can build together. Merci, mon ami.”

The two men clutched hands for 12 seconds while Macron rubbed Sunak’s back. The audience applauded. The entente between them has breathed new life into the 119-year-old entente cordiale.

Mr Sunak was not able to convince Mr Macron to take back migrants who traverse France to reach the UK, but that was never going to happen.

The British prime minister promised €543 million in financial assistance to help France stop small boats, more than twice the total amount given until now. He said there would be “a new detention centre in northern France, a new command centre bringing our enforcement teams together in one place for the first time, and an extra 500 new officers patrolling French beaches”.

Mr Sunak said these measures would be “underpinned by more drones and other surveillance technologies that will help ramp up the interception rate”. He also claimed “the legislation that the UK has introduced this week supports this”.

Before the summit, an adviser to Mr Macron cited the statement by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that the British law, which would ban migrants arriving in boats from France from applying for asylum, “would constitute a clear violation of the UN convention on refugees”.

About 45,000 migrants reached Britain in small boats last year. Mr Macron said the French had prevented 30,000 small boat crossings, dismantled 55 trafficking networks and made 500 arrests “thanks to the work of the joint Franco-British intelligence cell”.

Mr Macron said the new plan was the maximum that could be done at the bilateral level, pointing out that because of Brexit, the Dublin agreement, which foresees the return of migrants to the first EU country they enter, is no longer applicable. He and Mr Sunak agreed that the European Political Community, a new grouping founded on Mr Macron’s initiative last year, was the proper forum for the UK to discuss immigration with the EU.

The leaders expressed total unity regarding Russia’s all out invasion of Ukraine and announced a plan for joint training of Ukrainian marines. If there was a nuance between them, it was Mr Macron’s emphasis on the need for negotiations. “We have to find an outcome to this conflict,” he said. “We must place our Ukrainian friends in the best possible situation so they choose the moment and the terms of the discussions.”

Mr Sunak said: “Let me be unequivocal about this. We want Ukraine to win this war. We are absolutely united in that. Right now, that means providing them with the support and the capabilities and the training in order to mount a counteroffensive.”