Thread by @thewittynoise

Has the United Kingdom finally found its crisis manager-in-chief in #RishiSunak ⁉️

👉🏻After the resolution of the contentious "Northern Ireland" deal in #Brexit

👉🏻 The #UnitedKingdom and #France seek to mend their ties at their first summit in 5 yrs

Details 👇🏻

@LevinaNeythiri

After signing the historic #WindsorFramework agreement between Britain and the European Union last month to pass the final hurdle of #Brexit, UK PM #RishiSunak is now making strides to improve its relations with the European partners in the post-Brexit era.

Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel #Macron have now agreed to strengthen the military ties between their countries and step up efforts to prevent migrants from crossing the English Channel, at a summit that gave a sign of a thaw in relations after years of deadlock.

At a joint conference, Sunak said his meeting with Macron, the first since 2018, marked “a new beginning, an entente renewed.” It was a chance to signal to Conservative Party and Brits that govt is making progress on its promise to stop migrants reaching the UK in small boats.

Britain agreed to pay France more than 500 million euros over the next three years for measures including a detention center for migrants in northern France, a joint command center and more patrols of the French coastline using drones and an additional 500 French police officers.

It’s the latest and biggest measure in years of efforts by the two countries to stop thousands of migrants gathering in northern France and then trying to reach the U.K.

Macron and Sunak said the enforcement had worked, leading to more than 50 smuggling networks being broken up, 500 arrests & 1,300 boats prevented from launching.

Still, more than 45K people arrived in Britain by boat in 2022, up from 28K in 2021 acc. to an official U.K. count.

The U.K. announced contentious plans this week to detain and deport migrants arriving by boat, either to their homeland or “a safe third country.

Macron rejected any suggestion France might strike such an agreement with Britain, saying the U.K. would have to deal with the EU as a whole.

In recent years, relations between the U.K. and France chilled amid post-Brexit wrangling over fishing rights and other issues, and hit rock-bottom under Boris Johnson, who took delight in needling the French.

Sunak’s visit also comes two weeks before King Charles III travels to France and then Germany for his first state visits since becoming monarch.

France and the U.K. agreed to strengthen military cooperation, including on supplying weapons to Kyiv and training Ukrainian Marines.

The leaders also pledged to work for a permanent European maritime presence in the Indo-Pacific, notably by coordinating deployment to the region of France’s Charles de Gaulle and the U.K.’s Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales aircraft carriers.

The improved relationship comes after the U.K. and the EU announced a deal to resolve the dispute over post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.

Can this be treated as the comeback of Britain to European political dynamics post-Brexit?