The British-French alliance lacks trust, France’s EU affairs minister has said, citing Downing Street’s approach to the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland and the secretly negotiated defence agreement with the US and Australia.
Clément Beaune, a close ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said that while the two problematic issues should not be mixed, together they highlighted the flaw in the relationship.
“We need to rebuild confidence, we need to discuss together – we are not in this context at the moment,” Beaune said, before a meeting of EU affairs ministers and the Brexit commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, in Brussels.
During a visit to New York for the United Nations general assembly, Boris Johnson had insisted on Monday night that the alliance with Paris remained strong and “absolutely vital”, adding: “Our love of France is ineradicable.”
But a British-French defence meeting due to take place this week has been cancelled by Paris in the fallout over the Aukus defence pact, and there has not been a bilateral leaders’ summit for three years, despite attempts by Downing Street to organise one.
Beaune admitted there was a need to rebuild confidence in the relationship. On Brexit, he said the UK was not implementing the deals it agreed on fishing rights for EU boats nor on checks on goods travelling into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
“They are not well implemented … they are not fully respected,” he said. » | Daniel Boffey in Brussels | Tuesday, September 21, 2021
