Between France and Britain, an indispensable entente cordiale

LeMonde

16 hours ago

There are several underlying themes to Emmanuel Macron and his spouse's state visit to the United Kingdom from Tuesday, July 8, to Thursday, July 10 – the first by a French president since Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008.
The bilateral dimension is the most straightforward. Inevitably marked by protocol, the visit primarily serves to celebrate, thanks to the pageantry of the monarchy, a renewed friendship between the two longtime neighbors on either side of the Channel, following the trials of Brexit, which took effect in 2020, and the Aukus agreement, the defense pact signed by London, Washington, and Canberra in 2021 that Paris viewed as a betrayal. The departure of Boris Johnson from 10 Downing Street in 2022 first eased tensions. The state visit by King Charles III and Queen Camilla to France the following year confirmed the warming of bilateral relations.
The European subtext is somewhat more complex. Having taken office in July 2024, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer would like to reforge ties with the European Union, without reigniting the drama of rejoining. The British reset is one with a rather vague agenda, but for which the EU-UK summit on May 19 laid some groundwork. Macron is the first European leader invited to London for a state visit since Brexit. The UK, which is also engaged in deep dialogue with Berlin, is sending a signal to the rest of Europe.
With France as with Germany, defense cooperation is the most significant aspect of this rapprochement. Since Brexit, Europe has shifted into a new era: that of large-scale war waged by Russia against Ukraine. The UK has taken a leading role in military aid to Ukraine since 2014, especially in training Ukrainian forces, even when Paris and Berlin still favored negotiation. Today, Britain and France lead a "coalition of the willing" in Europe, seen as capable of guaranteeing Ukraine's security in the still distant event of a peace agreement.
Particular responsibility
This is where the transatlantic dimension comes into play. After the shock of the return of war, Europe faced that of Donald Trump's return to the White House, with a hostility toward the continent even more pronounced than during his first term. It is especially painful for the UK, which has always seen itself as having a "special relationship" with Washington. It is no coincidence that King Charles III is hosting Macron at Windsor before the American president, who is so famously sensitive to the grandeur of the British crown that Starmer believed he could win favor with an exceptional invitation, made during a February meeting in the Oval Office, to a second state visit, following the one in 2019.
France and the UK are the only European states with nuclear weapons and the two European permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. They share a strategic culture absent in Germany and have armed forces aware of their mission, though weakened by budget cuts. This gives Macron and Starmer a particular responsibility, beyond the contentious issues and the domestic political challenges they both face: that of taking a leading role in strengthening Europe in the face of an increasingly aggressive Russia and a decreasingly supportive US.