London gives 541 million euros to Paris to stop illegal immigration through the English Channel

five years ago that France and the United Kingdom did not hold one of the traditional bilateral summit meetings they have held since 1976. This Friday’s meeting in Paris between Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak appears to open a new stage, although it will still be difficult to regain all lost trust behind Brexittensions over fishing zones, and after the Aukus betrayal, a conspiracy between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, inspired by Boris Johnson, to destroy the contract for the sale of submarines between France and Australia.

The summit ended with lots of hugs and handshakes — in contrast to the coldness the French president maintained towards two of Sunak’s predecessors — and a new deal to crack down on illegal immigration coming to the UK via the English Channel. The two countries decided to create a new detention center of illegal migrants in the north of France and the additional hiring of 500 French agents to patrol the beaches, as detailed by the British Prime Minister, who has made the abolition of small boat sailings one of the main promises of his government.

According to a statement issued at the end of the summit, the United Kingdom will contribute 541 million euros in the next three years launch a new device, which also has a larger number of drones and other types surveillance technology this will contribute to “increasing the interception rate”, according to Sunak. The British Prime Minister did not hesitate to hail the agreement as a “new beginning” after the diplomatic friction that both countries have gone through in recent years.

For his part, President Macron recalled the efforts already made in the fight against illegal immigration, which enabled the French authorities to prevent the crossing more than 1300 vessels in 2022, with the dismantling of 55 branches of organized crime “thanks to the work of a joint Franco-British intelligence cell”. Some results that seem meager compared to more than 45,000 immigrants who managed to cross the English Channel last year, more than twice as many as those who managed to do it in 2021.

Another agreement is a commitment to nuclear energy, with a cooperation agreement based primarily on the French power company EDF, which is leading the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Great Britain. Regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, London and Paris – Europe’s only nuclear-armed militaries – share “the same analysis and the same will” to continue military assistance to Kiev, Macron commented. They also agreed to coordinate the training of the Ukrainian army.