French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Richie Sunak on Friday cemented a “new start” and “new ambition” in Franco-British relations, starting with the sensitive issue of fighting illegal immigration, after years of misunderstandings caused by Brexit. AFP reports. and Reuters report., quoted by News.ro.

Britain will pay France £480 million (€541 million) over three years to prevent Paris from allowing immigrants to cross the English Channel in small boats. This landmark measure ended years of tension in the post-Brexit era and set the stage for renewed relations.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Paris with a smile on his face. As a sign of familiarity, they patted each other on the shoulder, and then during the discussion they agreed to cooperate more closely. It was a “moment of reconnection”, Macron said at a joint news conference, while Sunac said it was time for a new relationship, for a “renewed Entente”, a reference to the alliance at the turn of the 20th century that smoothed diplomatic relations between major European states.

“Let’s be honest, relations between our countries have had some difficulties in recent years. Today, we have brought cooperation to an unprecedented level,” said Sunak.

In addition to the migration deal, the two leaders also agreed to advance nuclear energy cooperation, reaffirmed their support for Ukraine and pledged to strengthen the interoperability of their armed forces, including through the development of future missiles and air defense systems.

Migration, pond for Rishi Sunak

But for Sunak, migration was the focus. He is trying to present the deal as another of his achievements after agreeing new terms with Brussels on Northern Ireland in February. In office since October, the prime minister in London has made it his priority to stop small boats crossing the English Channel to Britain after the number of migrants arriving on England’s south coast surged to more than 45,000 last year, in five times more than last year. the last two years.

The expansion of cooperation on migration comes days after the British government introduced a controversial bill on Tuesday to sharply limit asylum rights, a project strongly condemned by the United Nations. But Paris has scaled back its influence, and London has rejected earlier criticism of France’s inaction on the maritime border.

Sunak has proposed new legislation to ban those arriving on small boats from seeking asylum, but for that he needs France’s cooperation to intercept the boats and destroy the trafficking networks behind the flow of migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and other countries.

Under the new deal, Britain will help fund a detention center in France, while Paris will deploy more French personnel and improve technology, including drones, to patrol its beaches. Agents from both countries will also try to work with countries located along favored human trafficking routes.

A British official said London would allocate €30 million over three years to the detention center and would send detained migrants back to their country of origin if it was safe, or to the last country they transited through if the country of origin was not safe.

On the other hand, although the number of asylum applications in the United Kingdom will reach a 20-year high of almost 75,000 in 2022, it is still below the European Union average. Many EU members are divided themselves on how to deal with migrants and whether they should be sent back to the first EU country where they arrived.

“Le Bromance” addresses nuclear energy and Ukraine

Friday’s meeting in Paris was the first summit in five years of Europe’s two largest military and nuclear powers, which are permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Ties between the two countries have been strained by Brexit and have been particularly difficult under British prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, with Truss at one point refusing to say whether Macron was “friend or foe”.

Sunak and Macron struck up a personal relationship at the COP27 summit in Egypt in November, their first face-to-face meeting two weeks after Sunak became prime minister. British newspapers called their warm relationship “Le Bromance”.

The two former investment bankers, who presented each other with shirts ahead of Saturday’s crucial Six Nations rugby match in London, were accompanied by seven ministers from both sides and met business leaders from both countries to deepen their economic relationship.

After the summit, British energy supplier Octopus Energy said it would invest €1 billion in the French green energy market over the next two years. The two countries have signed two energy partnership agreements, emphasizing nuclear power as a safe, low-carbon energy source.

“France and the UK are working together to ensure that the likes of Putin can never again use energy security as a weapon,” Sunak said.

In addition, the war in Ukraine became an opportunity for the two biggest supporters of Kyiv to confirm their support. Both leaders stressed the need to strengthen Ukraine’s military support and train its forces at this time to gain an advantage on the battlefield and put it in the best position for the day when negotiations begin to end the war. “The priority is military,” Macron said. “We want Ukraine to win this war, and we are completely united,” Rishi Sunak confirmed.

Several crises have interrupted the tradition of annual bilateral summits over the past five years: from Brexit to the pandemic to a heated dispute over alliances in the Asia-Pacific region. Two weeks before King Charles III’s state visit to France, his first trip abroad, the two leaders broke the ice and made a series of friendly gestures, including jokes about football.