French President Emmanuel Macron today pledged to deepen ties with the UK over defense and security, as well as migration and energy, following a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Paris.
Both leaders also discussed the need to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East, reiterating their call for an immediate ceasefire, and agreed that it was essential to keep supporting Ukraine to guarantee the defense and security of the country and of the continent as a whole.
Mr Starmer was welcomed warmly by President Macron, as the new centre-left British government seeks to relaunch post-Brexit ties with Europe.
Paris is the second leg of Mr Starmer's trip to key EU capitals. He visited Berlin yesterday and announced treaty talks alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
President Macron strode out to meet the British leader for a demonstrative hug, slapping the recently-elected leader's back and shaking his hand.
French presidents usually wait beside uniformed Republican Guards standing rigidly to attention at the top of the steps in the presidential palace's courtyard when welcoming visitors.
The pair had plenty to discuss.
Like Germany, France is a key security partner for Britain. Paris and London hold permanent seats on the UN Security Council and are Western Europe's only nuclear-armed powers.
The two countries share strong support for Ukraine in its fight against the Russia from the outset of the invasion in 2022.
More fraught is the issue of migrants crossing the English Channel to the UK on boats, which the two countries' security forces have cooperated for years to try to contain.
The issue was the first aim singled out by Mr Starmer in a statement released ahead of today's visit, alongside stoking economic growth.
Migrant arrivals in Britain reached a record high in the first six months of the year, according to London, rising 18% year-on-year to reach 13,500 people.
Since the beginning of the year, 25 people have died in often dangerously-overcrowded craft, twice as many as in the whole of 2023.
Reaching a new level of cooperation with the EU as a whole may be more elusive than the treaty Mr Starmer hopes to strike with Germany by year's end.
The leaders in the EU's traditional Franco-German power couple are both in a weakened state that may limit their influence on cross-Channel deal-making.
Chancellor Scholz heads a shaky three-party coalition set for a drubbing in three regional elections next month and unlikely to survive next year's national ballot.
President Macron is struggling to come up with a candidate for prime minister after a July snap election produced a hopelessly hung parliament, a stark contrast to Mr Starmer's unassailable majority.
