More than a year into Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, France and the United Kingdom are determined to meet the Russian threat to European security and provide Ukraine with unwavering military, diplomatic and economic support for as long as it takes. Together they will continue to bring a key contribution to international security across the globe, in order to strengthen an international order based on the rule of law. To that end, they reaffirm their commitment to the Lancaster House Treaties and to the 1995 Chequers statement, and commit to deepen further their defence and security partnership, which is the backbone of their bilateral relationship, and is at the core of European and global security. As two permanent members of the UN Security Council, and as members of the G7, G20 and NATO, they work closely in promoting international security and tackling shared challenges.
France, the United Kingdom and their partners will continue to accelerate the transition to home-grown clean energy in Europe, phase out their dependencies on fossil fuels,strengthen their cooperation in order to take responsible leadership to tackle the global climate and environmental crises, including through delivery of the Paris Agreement of 2015 and the Glasgow Climate Pact of 2021.
As they look forward to the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale in 2024, today’s Summit renews the deep connections between France and the United Kingdom. Those connections are built on the foundational relations between their people: the hundreds of twinnings between towns and cities in France, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; the hundreds of thousands of their citizens who live in one another’s countries; the millions more who visit on holiday and the thousands of Franco-British families. This Summit will further strengthen those foundations.
France and the United Kingdom agreed on enhancing their bilateral cooperation based on the following proposals, without prejudice to the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement and in full respect of its provisions when applicable.
1 – Ukraine
Set against the backdrop of increasingly destabilising activities over the past years, Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine poses a severe threat to European and international security. France and the United Kingdom are determined to respond to this threat together and for as long as it takes in order to ensure that Russia’s aggression will fail.
France and the United Kingdom reiterate that Russia’s irresponsible nuclear rhetoric is unacceptable. They regret Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the New START Treaty, an essential instrument of nuclear arms control and strategic stability. They urge Russia to immediately return to full compliance with the Treaty. France and the United Kingdom recalled in this context their commitment to the Joint Statement of the Leaders of the Five Nuclear-Weapon States on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races and called on Russia to recommit in words and deeds to the principles and commitments enshrined in this Joint Statement.
They also expressed their concern over Russia’s announcement that it will ensure its preparedness to conduct a nuclear test and they reiterated the importance of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty, which Russia has signed and ratified, and, pending its entry into force, of Russia’s compliance with its moratorium on nuclear tests.
France and the United Kingdom intend to use all the possibilities provided by the Lancaster House Treaties and their partnership to further coordinate their support to Ukraine, both bilaterally and with the international community through the International Donor Coordination Center. Together, France and the United Kingdom will support Ukraine to make decisive progress on the battlefield and defend its people and critical infrastructure from Russian aggression. They will increase their cooperation notably as regards the provision of equipment, in particular ammunitions, and the combat training of Ukrainian soldiers, including in coordination with the training activities conducted in the framework the EU Military Assistance Mission. Together they will continue to support the training of the Ukrainian Marines, in addition to the ongoing UK and Dutch training in the United Kingdom. They stand ready to agree arrangements with Ukraine on providing security commitments which will help Ukraine defend itself in the long term, and deter future acts of aggression. France and the United Kingdom remain committed to diplomacy and support the principles of President Zelensky’s Peace Formula to determine a just and lasting peace in line with the UN Charter when the time is right.
France and the United Kingdom commit to enhance their response to the consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine. France and the United Kingdom will in particular increase their support to the Ukrainian people and enhance their coordination of various recovery and reconstruction initiatives to improve their impact for Ukraine and its people, notably through the inclusive multi-agency Donor coordination Platform cooperation agreed between Ukraine, the G7, the European Union, International Financial Institutions and other key partners, building also on the results of the Paris international conference on the resilience of Ukraine held on December 13, 2022, and looking forward to the London Ukraine Recovery Conference in June. They will coordinate preparations to ensure the Ukraine Recovery Conference and the international Summit for a new global finance pact to be held in Paris in June are mutually supporting.
They agreed on working together towards ensuring accountability for the crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine within relevant fora, including the prosecution of war crimesand crimes against humanity. In close coordination and cooperation with global partners, they will continue to act against circumvention of their restrictive economic measures. They will maintain, fully implement and expand the economic measures they have already imposed, to further counter Russia’s capacity to wage its illegal aggression.
France and the United Kingdom recalled their efforts and commitment to mitigate the consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine on the most affected countries around the world, especially regarding energy and food security. They reaffirmed their statement along with other G20 leaders last November, that the war “is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy – constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks”. They agreed to enhance joint efforts to counter Russia’s influence and disinformation. They support access to reliable information and independent and quality journalism, including through the promotion of the International Partnership for Information and Democracy (PID). They also commit to strengthen their cooperation in this regard.
France and the United Kingdom expressed deep concern for the risk posed to nuclear safety and security by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and its continued illegalcontrol of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). They called on Russia to withdraw from the ZNPP and restore full control to its rightful sovereign owner, the Ukrainian authorities. Russia’s military presence at the ZNPP is endangering the local population, region and international community. They fully supported and commended the IAEA’s actions to reinforce -nuclear safety and security in Ukraine, including through the continuous presence of IAEA experts. They supported the IAEA Director General’s efforts for the establishment of a protection zone around the ZNPP, in full respect of Ukrainian sovereignty.
2 – European Political Community
France and the United Kingdom underline the importance of the European Political Community (EPC), which should serve as the high-level vehicle required to deepen the strategic dialogue between all its members and also to boost European-wide practical cooperation. Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has underlined the common fundamental values and interests of all countries in Europe, the need to defend European security,the imperative to support Ukraine and Moldova and to strengthen the cohesion, resilience and connectivity of the European family as a whole.
Keeping the EPC as a format where all countries work on an equal footing, France and the United Kingdom underline that the EPC should play a key role to promote a collective approach in all fields that are vital to our collective resilience, in particular energy, infrastructures, connectivity, cybersecurity, countering disinformation and migration. Ongoing efforts in these fields must be complemented and enhanced at the EPC-level to be fully effective.
Building on the success of the EPC’s first meeting in Prague in October 2022, France and the United Kingdom will strive to ensure the success of its next summit on 1 June in Moldova. They will also cooperate in view of the third summit in Spain and the fourth, which will be held in 2024 in the United Kingdom. To this end, they commit to strengthening their cooperation and to working with all members of the EPC to develop a common forward-looking agenda covering all the areas mentioned above.
3 – Defence and security
France and the United Kingdom are Europe’s two leading defence powers, with independent nuclear deterrents, full spectrum armed forces able to deploy and operate, alone or with Allies and partners, across the world on land, at sea, in the air, and increasingly today in outer space and cyberspace.
France and the United Kingdom reaffirm their commitment to their defence and security partnership set by the unique framework enshrined in the Lancaster House Treaties and illustrated by what they have achieved together since 2010 in the field of capabilities, interoperability, nuclear cooperation, to the benefit of their security and that of their partners and allies. Their ambition for the next decade is to deliver the further integration of UK and French armed forces, enabling the seamless transfer on operations, drawing on common Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) data transferred smoothly across their communication systems, enabling each nation’s sensors to pass data through each other’s command and control nodes to each other’s effectors. France and the United Kingdom commit to progress activity to ensure interoperability of weapons and platforms across Europe and NATO.
France and the United Kingdom are both nuclear powers. They do not see situations arising in which the vital interests of either France or the United Kingdom could be threatened without the vital interests of the other also being threatened. Their independent strategic nuclear forces contribute significantly to the overall security of the Alliance. They will further develop their Joint Nuclear Commission as the principal forum for bilateral strategic discussion and elaboration of common positions wherever possible on nuclear deterrence policy, on non-proliferation, arms control, disarmament matters. France and the United Kingdom recalled that for more than fifty years, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has been an irreplaceable and vital component of a global rules-based order. France and the United Kingdom reaffirmed the authority and primacy of the NPT as the cornerstone of the international non-proliferation regime, and the foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament. They reiterated their opposition to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which does not reflect the increasingly challenging international security environment and is at odds with the existing non-proliferation and disarmament architecture.
In the field of armament cooperation, France and the United Kingdom will advance key projects to develop their future complex weapons systems. They commit to concrete steps forward regarding the further advancement of the Future Cruise and Anti-Ship Weapon (FCAS/W) programme to avoid capability gaps. In particular, they commit to deliver a future cruise capability in 2030. France and the United Kingdom will seek for commonalities in their respective roadmaps in the missiles domain notably addressing the needs for the future air platforms. France and the UK will work together on ensuring interoperability of their respective future Combat Air systems, including on communication and on armament systems.
They reaffirm the centrality of France and United Kingdom armament cooperation to ensure their strategic sovereignty, resilience and sustainability to the benefit of both NATO and European defence. France and the United Kingdom are in particular fully committed to working toward effective current and future European solutions for Air Defence capabilities. They look forward to the Air Defence conference to be organised in June in Paris. Underlining the operational capabilities developed by the A400M aircraft, France and the United Kingdom reaffirm their commitment to the A400M programme and to manage the procurement roadmap to ensure its sustainability.
They will keep on looking at further areas of cooperation to increase interoperability of their defence capabilities. Directed energy weapons will particularly be investigated as well as potential for future common land deep precision strike capability programme.
At the Sandhurst Summit in January 2018, we agreed on the continuing importance of United Kingdom defence to the stability of the multilateral order including its contribution to European defence and Security, and of the ability of United Kingdom defence industry to continue to be able to engage in European defence research and capability development programmes under arrangements to be agreed at the European level and in other relevant formats.
They will enhance Franco-British capability and industrial cooperation with a new, closer relationship on industrial strategy, working to address shared issues, including industrial resilience, supply chain risks, critical key components/materials, skills, reciprocal market access and exports, subject to respective international commitments.
France and the United Kingdom will work together to increase the resilience of their respective supply chains (particularly supply chain risks, critical key components and materials) and strengthen their industrial strategies. They affirm their request for their defence and technological industrial base to adapt and prove their agility to take into account the necessary leverage of the production capacity in order to fulfil the operational needs expressed by the European nations and bring their adequate support to Ukraine. This is particularly of paramount importance in munitions to address pre-existing capacity constraints and in the field of complex weapons domain in which France and the United Kingdom share a common and strategic industrial asset with “One MBDA”.
France and the United Kingdom commit to further deepen their operational cooperation in the years to come, to increase their interoperability and further integrate their forces, including by harnessing the full potential of the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF), making it fit to the evolving security environment and the new contested areas, including in the High North. They also commit to continue improving mutual logistical cooperation in support of operations, to enhancing intelligence sharing in support of operations, and to facilitating access to their respective military bases. France and the United Kingdom reaffirmed their commitment to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and agreed to seek joint opportunities to uphold freedom of navigation and countering illegal fishing activities. Finally, they will strengthen their cooperation on homeland defence, including when responding to terrorist attacks against civil aviation or passenger shipping where the aircraft or ship is transiting between France and the United Kingdom.
They undertake to coordinate their carrier deployments to provide complementary and more persistent European presence in regions of shared interest. This will see them routinely providing mutual support for each other’s task groups. They will also seek to improve the interoperability of their embarked helicopters while working together on un-crewed autonomous vehicles at sea. Cooperation in their respective exercises will prepare their carriers for high intensity NATO warfighting. They shall be exploring opportunities for France and the United Kingdom to demonstrate for the first time the sequencing of more persistent European carrier strike group presence in the Indo-Pacific.
France and the United Kingdom stressed that the people-to-people links formed under Lancaster House are a powerful element in the relationship. They underlined the strong military relationship and deep trust gained over the years in relation to military mobility and military personnel exchange and commit to continue deepening exchanges in the years to come. They will ensure the continuing viability of this personnel exchange.
They will give a new impetus to their bilateral dialogue on cyber, including on cyber warfare.
They also underlined the importance of the France-United Kingdom defence relationships historical roots. They will establish a programme of joint military commemorative activity in particular for the 120th Anniversary of the Entente Cordiale and the 80th Anniversary of D-Day in 2024.
France and the United Kingdom will cooperate to reinforce NATO’s deterrence and defence posture in the long term, including on the Alliance’s Eastern and Northern flanks, through an increased dialogue and coordination of national strategies and doctrines across all domains. They will continue actively supporting and advocating for swift ratification of accession protocols for Sweden and Finland by all NATO Allies. They reaffirmed their ironclad commitments to the security of these two European countries, and will continue to conduct coordinated strategic signalling in the region as Sweden and Finland enter NATO.
France and the United Kingdom advocated for an enhanced EU-NATO coordination and committed to increase joint work and synergies, in full complementarity. In the Balkans, they will both increase their cooperation on regional stability and security, including by further supporting operation EUFOR Althea. They also committed to providing further support to Moldova and other countries impacted by this war in the region.
4 – Fight against organised crime, cyber and hybrid threats and terrorism
France and the United Kingdom resolved to increase their cooperation in tackling serious and organised crime, by establishing a partnership on this threat and addressing the challenges of new technologies. France and the United Kingdom will reinforce their information sharing and cooperation across a range of threats with a particular focus on drug trafficking, including possible evolving threats or entry routes into Europe.
France and the United Kingdom share a strong commitment to fight against child sexual exploitation and abuse and call upon technology companies to step up their efforts to prioritise safety by design and proactively tackle the Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse threat on their platforms. They are also exploring how French and UK expertise can be a contribution to the work of the Laboratory for Protecting Children Online given the transnational nature of this threat. They will enhance police, law enforcement and judicial cooperation, including updating of the non-legally binding 2015 France-UK Protocol, through reinforcing or supplementing the bilateral legal framework pertaining to law enforcement cooperation in accordance with existing EU-UK agreements as well as EU law, and strengthen cooperation via INTERPOL, including ahead of the United Kingdom hosting the INTERPOL General Assembly in 2024. France and the United Kingdom will join efforts to tackle corruption and illicit finance in regions particularly affected, recognising those factors are significant enablers of serious and organised crime.
France and the United Kingdom will reinforce their dialogue on counter-terrorism, including through intensifying their cooperation on respective strategies and policies, taking into account the evolving domestic and overseas terrorist threats, notably Da’esh and Al Qaida, and potential resurgence thereof. This dialogue will allow France and the United Kingdom to more closely coordinate their policies and projects in specific fields and strategic overseas regions very exposed to terrorist threat. France and the United Kingdom will also redouble efforts to foster a comprehensive approach (“whole government approach”), including strategic coordination in areas of current and future threat, domestic and overseas, covering all the dimensions of counter-terrorism.
Both countries will establish several expert level exchanges to share best practices regarding the fight against radicalisation, including in prison, and coordinate their anti-radicalisation policies and actions as well as develop information-sharing on current threats.
France and the United Kingdom recognised the success in delivering and ratifying the Maritime Security Treaty, signed in Paris on 26 July 2021, which will come into force in May 2023, and committed to undertake a joint maritime counterterrorism exercise before the end of 2023. They will build on the success of this Treaty with a commitment to work collaboratively to review the arrangements that are in place for the Channel Tunnel.
France and the United Kingdom will deepen and expand existing strong cooperation and detailed exchanges and information sharing on major events’ security, across policy and operational teams.
France and the United Kingdom will pursue their cooperation on cyber issues and give a new impetus to the UK-France Cyber Dialogue by pursuing a joint initiative to take forward international action on tackling the threat from commercial cyber proliferation, including commercial spyware. They will strengthen their cooperation in increasing cyber capacity building activities and law enforcement operations in cybercrime and international cyber governance issues, including via coordination in multilateral fora (UN Open-Ended Working Group, promotion and elaboration of a UN Programme of Action).
France and the United Kingdom will build on their positive cooperation on hybrid threats, including strengthening their toolkits for disrupting and building resilience to economic coercion, disinformation and wider information operations, and electoral and wider interference. They will leverage the Hybrid Threats Working Group and parallel deep dives to progress their understanding and response to these threats, including providing support to regional partners, and investigating the interlinkages between state actors, terrorists and organised crime groups.
5 – Foreign policy and global issues
France and the United Kingdom are determined to deepen they joint commitment to defend the principles enshrined in the UN Charter and a rules-based international order. France and the United Kingdom reaffirm the key contribution of their defence and security partnership to international security and their shared commitment to work together in favour of peace, stability, and prosperity around the world.
In Africa, France and the United Kingdom will increase their joint efforts to support the strengthening of African partners’ sovereignty and democratic institutions. They will especially support countries facing the presence and the destabilising influence of malign, terrorist and criminal actors. They will enhance their cooperation in various fields in the Sahel, Gulf of Guinea, Lac Chad Basin and Great Lakes and West Africa as well as coordination on the Horn of Africa, including food security for the region, climate adaptation, and development. France and the United Kingdom will increase their joint efforts towards better representation of Africa in the global governance. In the joint recognition of the value of empowering African countries to lead the response to their security challenges, France and the United Kingdom will seek to offer support to African-led initiatives, for example the Accra Initiative.
In the Middle East, France and the United Kingdom reaffirm their commitment to regional security and stability. They also reaffirm their unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution based on the 1967 lines and reiterate their strong opposition to all unilateral measures that undermine the two-state solution, including expansion of settlements which are illegal under international law.
France and the United Kingdom reaffirm their determination to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon capability. They share grave concerns about Iran’s serious escalation of its nuclear programme, especially after the IAEA Director General reported finding uranium particles containing up to 83.7 % U-235. This represents an unprecedented and extremely grave development in Iran’s nuclear programme. They expect Iran to fully cooperate with the Agency in order to clarify the origin of these particles and to comply with all its commitments and legally-binding international obligations with the IAEA in the application of effective safeguards in Iran.
They also share serious concerns about Iran’s destabilising activities in and around the Middle East, and Iran’s threatening behaviour towards Europe-based individuals. This includes activities related to ballistic and cruise missiles, including transfer of missile and missile technology, and transfer of unmanned aerial vehicles and conventional arms to state and non-state actors. They condemn Iranian UAV transfers in support of the Russian aggression in Ukraine and strongly caution Iran against any new deliveries of weapons to Russia, in particular ballistic missiles, which would constitute a serious escalation. They urge Iran to fully abide by all relevant UNSCRs, in particular UNSCR 2231 (2015). In this context, France and the United Kingdom will reinforce their close coordination on preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon capability, and on countering the destabilising development and proliferation of its missiles and UAVs, as a direct threat to regional, European and international stability.
They welcomed deepening engagement with the Indo-Pacific region to intensify economic, security and rules-based partnerships supporting a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. They reaffirmed their support for the centrality of ASEAN and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, as well as their support for the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent agreed by Pacific Island Forum partners. They will increase the coordination of their maritime military deployments, including in the Indian Ocean, to maximise the collective strategic impact, working with their European partners in order to enable a European presence that is as persistent and effective as possible – including drawing as widely as possible on the full range of their Maritime, Land and Air assets and wider Maritime Security activity. They will further develop their dialogue on the region, including in regards to economic security and strategic stability and will continue to defend a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. France and the United Kingdom agree to expand cooperation on issues affecting small island developing states such as access to finance and economic resilience, including in the Indo-Pacific where vulnerable Pacific Islands face critical challenges.
France and the United Kingdom also strongly condemn the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s unprecedented number of unlawful ballistic missile tests since last year, including its most recent ICBM test, that violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions and pose a threat to regional peace and stability. They are committed to continue coordination with their partners in the region and at the UN Security Council to reinforce pressure to address the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea proliferation crises. They will also continue to urge North Korea to accept the offers of dialogue and to return to the negotiating table.
They will coordinate on their concerns regarding China’s challenge to the rules-based international order, and will work with partners to manage increasing systemic rivalry and competition. As a permanent member of the UNSC, China must uphold its responsibilities. France and the United Kingdom solemnly call upon China to not provide material assistance to Russia or Russian proxies in Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. France and the United Kingdom reaffirm the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and call for the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues. They will continue to raise their concerns with China on its human rights violations and abuses, including in Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as over the continued erosion of Hong Kong’s rights, freedoms and autonomy. They remain ready to work with China on global challenges such as climate change and global health issues.
France and the United Kingdom committed to enhancing their collaboration in the Caribbean region, including on disaster response, through their partnerships with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency. They agreed to develop a joint strategy for the Eastern Caribbean to tackle shared challenges of organised crime and illicit trafficking (including of people, firearms and drugs) which impact the region, France and the United Kingdom, including their Overseas Territories.
France and the United Kingdom also commit to reinforce their cooperation on international and regional crises, especially those on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) agenda. They are determined to intensify cooperation on the UNSC reform and support responsible use of the veto, including by limiting its use in case of mass atrocities and by deepening discussions on the concrete modalities of the French initiative on the use of the veto right. They reiterate their shared commitment, as permanent members of the UNSC, to UNSC reform, including expansion in the permanent and non-permanent categories of membership to a total in the mid-20s, that includes permanent African representation and their shared support for text-based negotiations.
They commit to holding regular exchanges on the governance of international organisations, the activities of technical and standard-developing organisations and elections taking place therein. They reaffirm their support to the UN Secretary General’s “Common Agenda” and intensify exchanges on possible outcomes and agree to coordinate their contribution and to actively participate in the Summit of the Future (2024), and to promote the adoption of a far-reaching Pact for the Future, to ensure that the UN is best equipped to respond to current and future challenges. They will also collaborate on shaping the future of global technology governance through the OECD.
France and the United Kingdom committed to taking forward their shared agenda on global issues. They will deepen their cooperation and coordination to deliver their joint ambition. Their agenda will be informed by a shared desire to ensure that the international financial system is fit-for-purpose for the 21st century, protecting the most vulnerable, enhancing their developing partners’ sovereignty and delivering on their wider financing goals, including climate and nature. It will aim to promote the highest international standards with regards to responsible investment for economic development, the protection of human rights, gender equality and the rule of law, as well as a joint high ambition for global health, food security and nutrition, sustainable quality infrastructure, education, climate, environment and biodiversity.
France and the United Kingdom are willing to strengthen their exchange of views on the common economic and financial issues they are facing. To achieve this ambition, they will organise two annual dialogues between their economic and finances administrations, at a senior technical level. On the one hand, they will relaunch and refresh the “Treasuries Dialogue” between the French Direction générale du Trésorand the United Kingdom’s HM Treasury, by adding international financial issues to the agenda, such as reform of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), value chain dependencies, the impact of distortive practices, and export credit instruments and their role in their nuclear bilateral cooperation. They will also explore opportunities for a Direction générale du Trésor – HM Treasury secondments. On the other hand, France and the United Kingdom will also perpetuate and nurture the recently started dialogue between the French Direction générale des Entreprises (DGE) and the British Department for Business and Trade, which promotes perspective sharing on industrial cooperation, including decarbonisation of industry and support to SMEs and start-ups.
France and the United Kingdom will step up their efforts to ensure that the international community provides support to help the most vulnerable countries and address their most urgent and vital needs. They will coordinate their efforts in view of the necessary reforms of the international financial architecture, in order to accelerate a fair global transition towards net-zero, including through Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs), and the sustainable development of low-income countries through a strategic dialogue between the Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. .
They noted the change of leadership for the World Bank and will work together to deliver ambitious reform of the World Bank to better tackle extreme poverty and finance global public goods, such as climate change. They noted that implementation of the Capital Adequacy Framework through leveraging the overall development finance accessible will be important for increasing MDBs financing for global public goods and for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
They will work together with partners from all continents to deliver concrete and ambitious outcomes for the Summit for a New Global Finance Pact that will take place in Paris in June 2023. They will be supportive of innovative solutions and ambitious reforms of the international financial architecture to generate more fiscal space in the short term and allow massive investments in the long run for all vulnerable countries to be able to tackle both poverty and climate change at the same time. They are ready to consider a range of options to provide an adequate response to climate shocks for all vulnerable countries. They also recalled their commitment to add a dedicated climate resilience debt clause to their bilateral concessional export loans, which will allow countries to defer debt service repayments in the event of a major climate disaster as well as to encourage the uptake of Majority Voting Provisions in new sovereign loan agreements with commercial lenders to facilitate restructuring of syndicated loans.
France and the United Kingdom call on other countries to allocate SDRs to meet the ambition of mobilising at least 100bn dollars of SDR or equivalent contributions to vulnerable countries. In this regard, France had pledged to recycle up to 30% and the United Kingdom up to 20%, of the SDRs received through the 2021 allocation and which would contribute to meeting this ambition. We aim to work towards this, including the United Kingdom meeting its 20% commitment by the Summit for a new global finance pact to be held in Paris in June.
They agreed to work with others to explore viable options of channelling Special Drawing Rights (SDR) through the African Development Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and to mobilise other partners. They called on the IMF to bolster fundraising efforts of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and the Resilience and Sustainability Trust and to consider the use of internal resources as early as feasible, including options for a targeted sale of IMF gold reserves, and which could provide resource support for raising access limits for poor and vulnerable countries.
Committed to the Paris Agreement, the Glasgow Climate Pact, and Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), France and the United Kingdom are determined to boost climate and nature action including through the G7, G20 and at COPs and through a new Strategic Climate and Nature Diplomacy Dialogue for Joint Climate and Nature Action and enhanced collaboration at appropriate technical levels. They will deepen their collaboration on nature within, across, and beyond multilateral environment agreements to further their shared aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. France and the United Kingdom are determined in keeping 1.5 degrees alive and to ensuring countries collectively scale up mitigation ambition and action across this critical decade. France and the United Kingdom committed to accelerate the phase-out of unabated uses of fossil fuel and called on all partners to join this commitment.
They will cooperate to protect the ocean and promote together an ambitious program of action towards the next UN conference on Ocean in 2025 that will take place in Nice, including through the ongoing negotiations for a new legally binding treaty on plastic pollution, the promotion of new area-based management tools in the framework of the agreement on marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. France and the United Kingdom also committed to further joint action to mobilise Nature Finance and drive alignment with the GBF, committing to its full and effective implementation. To meet GBF commitments, France will double its bilateral biodiversity finance by 2025 and the United Kingdom is delivering on its commitment of £3bn of international climate finance on nature between 2021-2026. France and the UK encourage all donors with capacity to do so, as well as multilateral development banks and IFIs, to increase biodiversity finance and align financial flows with the GBF. They will support developing countries in the implementation of the GBF and 30×30 target, including through active leadership and support for High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, the Forest and Climate Leaders Partnership and the Global Ocean Alliance. France and the United Kingdom are also committed to working with partners to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, and so deliver the outcomes from the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, the One Forest Summit, the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) and the upcoming Climate Finance Summit. Our objective is to work together on country packages for forest countries, on innovative mechanisms to pay for ecosystem services based on the recent GEF Innovative Finance for Nature and People report, and on sustainable use of wood and biobased materials, with first deliverables by COP28.
As an international tax system where tax is paid where it is due and that is fair across the world is needed, France and the United Kingdom recognised that the current global tax architecture must allow all countries to access to the benefit from base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) in general and from the implementation of the future tax reform (two pillar solution) regardless of their administrative capacities and agreed collaboratively to support these goals. France and the United Kingdom welcomed the approach proposed by the Indian G20 presidency to provide for instruments aimed at helping countries, and in particular developing countries, to implement the two-pillar solution. France and the United Kingdom called for rapid progress on the implementation of the recommendations of the G20/OECD stocktake and roadmap reports on developing countries and international taxation agreed under the Italian and Indonesian presidencies.
France and the United Kingdom will deepen cooperation and coordination on humanitarian responses to emergencies, working together to provide principled humanitarian assistance at times of crisis and bolster efficiency and effectiveness within the international response system as well as to promote international humanitarian law.
France and the United Kingdom will reinforce their dialogue on global health issues, in order to jointly promote and foster sustainable prevention, preparedness and response to pandemics, addressing antimicrobial resistance, and integrating the “One Health approach” through relevant initiatives, such as the One Health Joint Plan of Action, and PREZODE. Recognising the widespread, cross-border impacts of pandemics, they will also work together to: ensure the world better prevents, prepares for, detects and responds to health threats through the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body for a new Pandemic Instrument; work on amendments to the International Health Regulations; and reform of the World Health Organisation. More generally, as members of the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health, in order to realise the ambition set at COP26 to build climate resilient and sustainable health systems, they will work together with WHO and other stakeholders to drive this agenda forward in common multilateral fora, such as but not limited to G7 and G20.
6 – Energy and decarbonisation
France and the United Kingdom reaffirmed their commitment to promote energy policies, international cooperation on energy security, and to technology and innovation that enhance energy transition and decarbonisation of their economies. They agreed on a bilateral energy partnership, including on civil nuclear cooperation, to contribute to foster energy transition, transport and industry decarbonisation, renewable energy, notably offshore wind and renewable, and low carbon hydrogen development. They recalled the key role of nuclear energy, in particular its contribution to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and to enhance energy security and sovereignty. France and the United Kingdom reaffirmed their support to the Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C projects and expressed their desire to maintain and enhance their bilateral cooperation in the field of civil nuclear energy. They affirmed their commitment to cooperation in the following areas: new build, energy diversification, decommissioning and dismantling, waste management, research and development (including safe and secure deployment of Small Modular Reactors and Advanced Modular Reactors), skills and diversity, supply chain, fusion and nuclear safety.
Both countries also recognise the central role of electricity interconnection in their mutual energy security of supply, the green transition and prosperity. They recognise the mutual importance of critical infrastructure and are committed to keeping interconnectors open and related operational coordination during winter periods to maintain electricity supplies for their consumers and businesses. They agree that their energy systems will evolve as they transition to Net Zero and, when mutually beneficial, commit to make their best efforts to progress future interconnection projects between their countries, whilst ensuring timely coordination with onshore grid developments. This should take account of a re-examination of the case for new interconnection in France.
France and the United Kingdom will join efforts to accelerate the decarbonisation of the transport sector. France and the United Kingdom committed to support the establishment of Green Shipping Corridors (zero-emission maritime routes between two or more ports) between their countries. On the initiative of the French and UK governments, a France-UK taskforce will be set up with critical stakeholders such as industry and academia representatives, to develop a roadmap for the next 24 months and enhance coordination on the deployment of zero emission technology and enabling infrastructure.
France and the United Kingdom restated their commitment to taking ambitious national action to decarbonise their respective aviation sectors, including through government-industry collaboration such as the French Sustainable Aviation Fuel Task Force and the UK Jet Zero Council Sustainable Aviation Fuel Delivery Group. Both countries will continue close cooperation in global and European fora such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) and the International Aviation Climate Ambition Coalition (IACAC), building on the successful agreement of the ICAO net zero 2050 goal in October 2022. France and the United Kingdom will continue to negotiate, through these fora and others, ambitious global measures to decarbonise the international aviation sector, including at the Third Conference on Aviation Alternative Fuels in November 2023. They will support and assist other states to develop their full decarbonisation potential, in particular through ICAO’s Assistance, Capacity building and Training for CORSIA (ACT-CORSIA) and Sustainable Aviation Fuels (ACT-SAF) initiatives. They will work toward a potential joint France-UK SAF workshop on the potential for development of SAF supply chains in France and the United Kingdom.
France and the United Kingdom will also work together on sustainable mobility and will in particular promote the Paris-London Avenue Verte cycle route in the perspective of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.
7 – Illegal migration
France and the United Kingdom are partners in the fight against human trafficking, people smuggling and illegal migration, from the Channel to the Mediterranean and beyond. They committed to reinforce their bilateral co-operation, not to manage the problem but to break it. This is firmly in their joint interest. They are committed to reinforce their bilateral co-operation, building on the 2018 Sandhurst Treaty and their Interior Ministers’/ Home Secretaries’ joint declaration of November 14th 2022. This follows the positive work to date which has seen 1,381 crossings carrying 33,788 illegal migrants prevented in 2022. They agreed to increase the interception rate and drastically reduce the number of crossings year on year.
To deliver this, France and the United Kingdom have agreed a joint multi-year operational plan and a joint funding arrangement. On top of the substantial and continuing French contribution, the contribution of the United Kingdom, over the next three years will be 141 M€ for 2023-2024, 191 M€ for 2024-2025 and 209 M€ for 2025-2026.
Within existing French and United Kingdom operational structures, they will enhance their cooperation at sea to save lives and avoid further tragedies in the Channel.
To this end, both countries will intensify their efforts to undermine human traffickers’ business model, committing to increased prevention of crossings. Specifically to support these efforts, the United Kingdom has agreed to fund a further increase of 500 in law enforcement and human resources deployments in France, and invest in new infrastructure and surveillance equipment to enable swifter detection of crossing attempts. These UK investments will put more drones, helicopters and aircraft in the sky, contributing to the effort of French authorities to monitor a larger area of northern France and prevent more crossings as well as increased management capacities for irregular migrants, including the creation of a retention centre, which will contribute significantly to improve the number of returns and prevent the recurrence of crossing attempts. These multiannual commitments to funding and activity from the United Kingdom and France respectively are underpinned by a range of agreed metrics to measure progress and success.
France will establish a new “Zonal coordination initiative” in Lille, under French command, to maximise the operational response to migratory issues in the Channel, responsible for coordination of all relevant French law enforcement, supported by the United Kingdom and including a permanent presence (24/7) of an embedded British officer.
France and the United Kingdom will continue to work together to tackle the organised crime groups (OCGs) that facilitate these dangerous journeys. France and the United Kingdom commit to further develop, where necessary, intelligence sharing and joint investigations to dismantle criminal gangs.
Both countries will further study ways to pursue their cooperation to tackle OCGs, for instance in deploying new digital intelligence capabilities by France, with the support of the National Crime Agency (NCA) in their deployment through the provision of training and sharing best practice. The NCA will further support the French response through the deployment of a liaison officer working in their partner agency (OLTIM). In addition to this, France and the United Kingdom will enhance sharing of covert intelligence between our nations in relation to organised immigration crime.
France and the UK will strengthen joint efforts to tackle the supply chain of equipment that enables dangerous and illegal small boat crossings. They will co-lead a new initiative that brings together a coalition of states who will work together, using customs powers and intelligence capabilities, to identify and disrupt supply chains and limit the availability of equipment in France.
France and the United Kingdom committed to develop their joint upstream activities in source and transit countries to disrupt trafficking networks and address the root causes and enablers of illegal migration, continuing to work with other European partners, especially via the “Calais Group” and taking into account EU initiatives in that respect.
Taking into account the need to put an end to the illegal activities of smugglers in the Channel area and in order to avoid dangerous crossings to save lives, they pronounce their willingness for work to be done towards an EU-UK cooperation agreement on migration, in consistency with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom and without prejudice to necessary discussion on EU level.
As part of their joint upstream activity, France and the United Kingdom will intensify their cooperation to avoid the development of a new illegal migratory route in the Indian Ocean, including on sharing operational intelligence and information on vessels, organising returns and continuing the dialogue with Sri Lankan authorities on preventing smugglers’ activities. To this end, France and the United Kingdom will aim to set up together a joint plan of action on illegal migrations in the Indian Ocean by summer 2023.
8 – Social and economic ties
To bring their societies closer, France and the United Kingdom will put the emphasis on developing people-to-people initiatives, encourage mobility, culture, and exchanges, within the framework of the EU-UK relationship.
France and the United Kingdom agreed to establish a Mobility Dialogue through a Technical Working Group under joint ministerial oversight to address bilateral mobility issues, including access for Volontaires Internationaux in the United Kingdom.
France and the United Kingdom recognise the deep cultural connections and shared interests between the people of the two countries, to and look forward to celebrate these ties in 2024, to mark the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale.
France and the United Kingdom will :
● Establish a France-UK literary award.
● Deliver the « Spotlight on Culture » programme, to celebrate the Paris Olympics and Paralympics in 2024. The Institut Francais du Royaume-Uni, the British Council and Industry Partners will jointly support the continuation of Franco-British cooperation programmes such as Diaphonique for contemporary music and Fluxus in the visual arts centre. They welcome the launch of Magnetic, a new artist residencies scheme associating France and the four UK nations, and Lumière!, the umbrella initiative for the cultural and exchange programmes supported by France and the United Kingdom
● create a circle of French-UK museums, building on the experience of French American Museum exchange (FRAME).
They reaffirm that the Bayeux Tapestry remains a strong symbol of our shared history. The United Kingdom will support France in efforts to conserve the tapestry. France and the United Kingdom will explore ways to ensure the best access for citizens from both countries to see the Tapestry and provide initiatives for UK school trips while it is being repaired.
They welcome the close partnership between The British Film Institute (BFI), and Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) that celebrates our film industries. Both parties look forward to the London Film Festival in October 2023.
They look forward to the 10th anniversary of the 2024 Forum Entreprendre dans la Culture, which brings together entrepreneurs, creators and technical experts from the cultural and creative industries, and at which the United Kingdom will be the Guest of Honour.
They will explore all the potential of the 1948 bilateral Convention to develop our cultural and educational cooperation.
France and the United Kingdom will continue to share expertise on promoting women’s sport in general, including women’s football, with a focus on media coverage, governance and ethic issues and public policies aiming at fostering women sport from grassroots to elite, including mutual exchanges of recommendations from the UK Review of Women’s Football, from the UK Code for Sports Governance and from the French current work to strengthen ethics in sport.
They will continue to share expertise and lessons learnt on hosting major events, following the 2018 Declaration of Intention on Sports Cooperation, including a focus on legacy, in terms of grassroot participation in sport and physical activity, disability sport and sustainable development.
France and the United Kingdom supported the work implemented by the Franco-British Council (FBC) to strengthen and develop the Young Leaders program, while fostering the seminars organised by the FBC.
France and the United Kingdom committed to encourage further exchanges between think tanks, in order to develop common reflections on international challenges as well as on the perspectives of bilateral relations.
France and the United Kingdom agreed to set up a bilateral Commission to redefine key areas regarding educational cooperation and are committed to deepening cooperation by updating the France-United Kingdom Memorandum of Understanding on Education, Training and Skills. Themes of common interest might include learning languages, vocational education and training and apprenticeship as well as combatting inequalities.
Cooperation and policy exchanges on school education, facilitation of school trips and exchanges, including in the field of vocational education, opportunities for language learning will be expanded. On school travel, the United Kingdom committed to ease the travel of school groups to the UK by making changes to documentary requirements for schoolchildren on organised trips from France. France commits to ensuring appropriate mechanisms are in place for visa free travel for children travelling on organised school trips from the United Kingdom and to facilitating the passage of those groups through the border.
Both countries decided to strengthen the business, commercial and industrial links between France and the United Kingdom, including by building on the France-United KingdomBusiness Forum launched in July 2022, which should become a recurring event, and contributes to strengthen business-to-business dialogue in areas where France and the United Kingdom share business priorities.
France and the United Kingdom encourage and support the dialogue between French and UK communities at local and regional level, through twinning, partnerships and meetings between representatives of the “umbrella” associations of local authorities. This includes supporting the UK-France Local Government Forum in 2024.
To enhance their scientific cooperation in priority fields such as emerging technologies (AI, Quantum physics), space, health or climate change, France and the United Kingdom will set up a Joint committee for science, technology and innovation as a high-level scientific dialogue, building on existing relations and ongoing collaborations, with the first dialogue to take place in 2023.
France and the United Kingdom will seek to improve the social conditions of seafarers, prioritising their health and safety. They will both independently introduce legislation in Parliament protecting seafarers against exploitation.
Recognising the importance of travel between our countries and to maximize border fluidity, France and the United Kingdom will consider how best to jointly prepare operationally for the introduction of the Entry Exit System.
Since 1st January, the Franco-British Chamber has been domiciled at 22 rue de Londres at its partner CROWE FIDELIO.
Historic event at the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce’s “Rentrée Reception” : the signing of an agreement on a Joint Action Plan
