Enduring friendships

It was once remarked that Britain has no eternal allies and no perpetual enemies. But the 120-year anniversary of the Entente Cordiale, which reduced the near-isolation into which both powers had withdrawn, serves as a reminder that we may have something akin to a permanent friendship. In today’s Telegraph, Lord Cameron and the French minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, write of their commitment towards “renewing” the “essential unity of our interests and desires”.

They do so at an acutely dangerous moment for the world. Upon his unexpected return to frontline politics, the Foreign Secretary will have been under no illusion that our security and stability is at greater risk than at any point in recent history. Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive struggled to regain lost ground and Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel triggered a conflict in the Middle East that could spark a much wider, all-embracing, inter-regional war. Unfortunately, in the five months since Lord Cameron assumed his current position, these threats have intensified, while new tensions have emerged.

Warnings have consequently been issued over our military preparedness and these must not go unheeded. But as Lord Cameron and Mr Séjourné make clear, many of today’s major challenges – from extremism to climate change – will require international co-operation. Britain and France cannot do this alone, and will “rally others to join us”. They must ensure America, which is taking an increasingly isolationist stance, one that may be solidified should Donald Trump return to the White House, is among those galvanised. This needs to be a goal of Lord Cameron’s trip to the US this week.