Emmanuel Macron made his first official visit as French president to the UK as the two nations embarked on the initial stage of trying to work out a new bilateral relationship after Britain has left the European Union.

The relationship between France and the UK

The agenda in his summit with Prime Minister Theresa May reflected “the broadness of the UK-France relationship”, according to a Downing Street spokesman.Aside from headline-making items such as enhanced defence cooperation and an extra £45 million of British money to improve immigration security at French ports, the talks covered “the full spectrum of the UK-France bilateral relationship including prosperity, innovation, science and education”.Mrs May said ahead of the meeting, “Today’s summit will underline that we remain committed to defending our people and upholding our values as liberal democracies in the face of any threat, whether at home or abroad.
“Our friendship has always gone far beyond defence and security and the scope of today’s discussions represents its broad and unique nature.
“What is clear from the discussions we will have today is that a strong relationship between our two countries is in the UK’s, France’s and Europe’s interests, both now and into the future.”

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Continued cooperation over defence

On defence issues, Mrs May committed three RAF Chinook helicopters and crews to assist French counter-terrorism operations in Mali while Mr Macron agreed to contribute troops to the British-led NATO battlegroup in Estonia in 2019.The two leaders also discussed closer cooperation to counter domestic terrorism and online security. “Recent terrorist attacks across Europe underline the scale of the cross-border challenge we face in keeping our citizens safe,” said a UK government spokesman.On the extra money for cross-Channel port security, he said, “This is about investing in and enhancing the security of the UK border.“Just as we invest in our borders around the rest of the UK, it is only right that we constantly monitor whether there is more we can be doing at the UK border controls in France and Belgium to ensure they are as secure as possible.”

A 'broad' post-Brexit relationship

Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative MP and chairman of the House of Commons’ foreign affairs select committee, said bilateral relations with France needed to go beyond the areas covered while the UK was a member of the EU.“We must talk to the French not just about the military alliance that matters to both of us, but our economic and social links, too,” he said. “These bilateral connections with our EU neighbours will mean investing more in our embassies in Europe to ensure we don’t lose influence in our region.“But we can’t strip resources from our wider network if ‘Global Britain’ is to be more than a slogan. That means more money for diplomacy to shape the world and ensure we continue to help write the rules that have seen us prosper and others grow.”Brexit itself was not on the formal summit agenda but Jonathan Eyal, associate director of the London think-tank, the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, commented, “Seen from France, this comes at a point of weakness for the UK. There is a feeling in Paris that they can extract more concessions from the British today – it’s no longer seen as a meeting of equals.”The Anglo-French summit came a day ahead of a trip to Paris by German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she will discuss with Mr Macron the possibility of aligning corporate taxes in the eurozone and generally strengthening regulation within the currency union.

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Read more about the future of the UK business in the Winter issue of our magazine 

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