Sunak recovers the annual Franco-British summit in Paris five years after the last meeting and shakes hands with Macron
The prime minister gives off great chemistry with the French president and buries the tensions caused by Brexit and Johnson
Announces an extra departure to France to combat the massive arrival of illegals, but does not get permission to repatriate them to its territory
Relations between France and the United Kingdom seem to have entered a new era after Rishi Sunak came to power, as could be seen at the meeting held this Friday in Paris. First because this annual bilateral summit was held for the first time in five years, since the arrival of Boris Johnson and since the most tense years of Brexit, and later due to the chemistry between the two leaders. This summit was organized for the first time in 1976 with the intention of improving relations between neighboring countries in all its aspects. This Friday its thirty-sixth edition was held. The previous one had occurred on British soil in January 2018 when the prime minister was Theresa May and is trying to carry out a soft Brexit.
Perhaps the Johnson and Brexit years have been the most tense between the two countries since Paris and London signed the so-called ‘Entente Cordiale’ in 1904, a non-aggression treaty and regulation of the colonial expansion of the two powers that It ended a thousand years of aggression and warfare that began in 1066 with William the Conqueror’s Norman invasion of England. In the British-European Brexit negotiations, Macron was the toughest European leader on the UK. The fishing agreement between France and the United Kingdom was the last obstacle to be able to close the final Brexit agreement. The chemistry between Macron and Johnson was nil, rather they repelled. The most telling image was produced at the 2019 NATO summit, with Macron deliberately avoiding Johnson.
This Friday in Paris another type of relationship was seen, more natural, more sincere, with Macron referring to Sunak as “Dear Rishi” (dear Rishi) and Sunak to Macron as “mon ami” (my friend). Since his arrival Sunak has opted for a different type of approach and tone with Brussels, more conciliatory and more pragmatic that it already paid off with the new agreement reached for Northern Ireland reached two weeks ago and that left the British region within the European and British markets, something that Johnson could not achieve with his perennial defiant grimace. Now Sunak has approached Macron in the same way, his main enemy in Europe, who has been accused from the United Kingdom of trying to deliberately harm the country as punishment for leaving the European Union (EU).
The Dublin Agreements
To the Parisian summit this Friday, Sunak traveled accompanied by the foreign, interior, defense and energy ministers, as well as business representatives. Three main issues were discussed: illegal immigration, energy cooperation and the response to the Russian threat. The most urgent issue, the one that burned Sunak’s hands, was undoubtedly the massive arrival of undocumented immigrants from France. Macron and Sunak agreed on further cooperation on both coasts and Sunak announced the delivery of an extra item of 479 million pounds (552 million euros) to France to improve protection and also the financing of a refugee center on French soil.
However, Sunak did not extract an agreement from Macron to be able to return to France the undocumented immigrants who come from France to England. Sunak evaded answering the question at the press conference. Macron hinted that the only way was through a bilateral agreement between the EU and the UK. A treaty that replaces the Dublin agreements that entered into force in 1997 and that it was an EU law to regularize asylum applications between member countries in accordance with the United Nations Refugee Convention signed in 1951 in Geneva. Sunak’s policy on illegal immigrants is the one area in which he does not differ from Johnson. In fact, he has adopted his policy to third-party deport all undocumented Britons. In the United Kingdom, Sunak has been accused of being a populist and an electoralist for this law. The United Nations says it is illegal. It does not affect France.
Another end for Ukraine
Where Sunak and Johnson have clearly differed is in the position adopted with respect to the war in Ukraine. Here he is closer to Macron, who is in favor of resolving the conflict at a negotiating table. Sunak also positioned himself in this direction. While Johnson, Zelensky’s great friend, advocated defeating the Russians on the battlefield so that there would be no doubt as to who was the victor. On Friday, the two leaders agreed to continue arming Russian troops and offering them training until Ukraine was in a position to reach a good peace deal.
The third and last point was the vast energy collaboration between the two countries. The energy ministers signed an agreement to expand the electrical interconnection between the two countries (currently 4 gigawatts) by two thirds, to increase cooperation in nuclear energy and in CO2 capture and storage, which the UK expects to be a major industry in the North Sea by 2030. This Friday’s summit is just the beginning of a new era between the two countries, the post-Brexit era. And the UK needs a good relationship with France and the EU in order to repair the damage done to the country by Brexit.
