Business as usual: Friday’s summit was all froth
Franco-British relations will always be subject to mood swings. Since the 1904 Entente Cordiale their relationship has been variously characterised as mésentente cordiale, entente discordiale, entente déloyale and worse. On Friday, after a frosty five-year absence from French soil, a British prime minister, accompanied by seven ministers, attended a summit in Paris on everything from energy policy to Asia-Pacific relations. Rishi Sunak proclaimed “Entente renewed”.
Franco-British relations have, in fact, maintained an undercurrent of solidarity when it really mattered. In July 1914 the French ambassador enquired of the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, whether the word “honour” should be struck from the English dictionary if Britain failed to back France against Germany. A few days later France and Britain were cooperating on a scale rarely witnessed among sovereign allies. During the phoney war in May 1940 Churchill proposed a Franco-British “union” pooling sovereignty and citizenship that a Pétain-influenced cabinet eventually rejected. In 1956, prior to the Franco-British Suez expedition, it was France’s turn to propose a condominium of their two empires with joint citizenship, which Eden’s government declined. For several decades now, Brexit or not, the British government’s defence white papers and France’s lois de programmation militaire have as axioms that either state come to the aid of the other if their vital interests are threatened.
Even when France had withdrawn from Nato’s integrated military command, Franco-British relations were staunch in either’s hour of need. France was far from disloyal to Britain during the 1982 Falklands War. For all the post-Brexit bad blood, when the 5,000 French troops of Operation Barkhane conducting counterterrorist operations in Africa’s Sahel region required mission-critical heavy lift helicopters and crews on the front line, Britain stepped in.
Since the 2010 Lancaster House agreements, Franco-British defence and security cooperation has been wide-ranging, deep and unsung. From joint drone and missile manufacture, to nuclear weapons simulation, a 10,000-strong Combined Joint Expeditionary Force and joint naval deployments, the agreements have continued.
So where does Friday’s summit sit in the long historical picture? FrancoBritish relations did not require rebuilding. The exercise was really aimed at the two leaders’ domestic audiences. The Prime Minister suggests the migration agreement will fix the “small boats” crisis; the President is delighted that France’s
FrancoBritish relations are often said to be in the deep freeze. The reality is usually rather different
Franco-British relations did not need rebuilding. The exercise was really aimed at the two leaders’ domestic audiences
seriously depleted coffers will be replenished by half a billion euros. Sunak hopes that Macron will ease Britain’s relations with Brussels. Macron is enthused at having signed up Sunak to his big idea for a Europewide forum of 44 countries in his so-called European Political Community (EPC). At Friday’s press conference, Macron detailed its rotating six-monthly meetings, congratulating Sunak on London being the fourth host next year.
For his part at the press conference a guileless Rishi Sunak joked how prime ministers cannot choose their international counterparts, stressing how fortunate he was to be serving alongside Emmanuel. He will come to regret those words if Macron’s EPC is a disguised EU attempt to lasso the UK.