Paris – Britain and France were seen as reviving close ties between their services and arms industries, following President Emmanuel Macron meeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Downing Street on July 9, the start of a three-day state visit to the U.K.
Britain and France signed in 1904 the Entente Cordiale, a bilateral treaty for cooperation, “after 100 years of rivalry,” Olivia Penichou, spokeswoman for the armed forces ministry, said July 17 at the weekly press conference at Balard, the defense headquarters.
The 37th summit in London was a “demonstration of solidarity and the importance of their defense ties,” she said. The summit was an “opportunity to modernize and consolidate” an alliance, which included the 2010 Lancaster House treaty.
Macron’s high-profile visit to London included a plan to work more closely on the separate British and French nuclear deterrence, a strategic partnership included in the Lancaster House agreement, which spanned nuclear and conventional warfare.
That French state visit was seen as Britain reaching out to France to repair cross-Channel relations in the wake of Brexit weakening the U.K. There was also a policy drive to strengthen European capability in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and concern over U.S. relations with Europe, with Washington slapping trade tariffs on the European Union, and perceived uncertainty over U.S. commitment to Nato.
The Macron visit came ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s unprecedented planned second state visit to the U.K., due in September.
The timing of that U.S. visit, which included a royal welcome, was reported to be driven by the British parliament going into official recess that month. That dodged a perceived bullet of Trump giving a speech to parliamentarians, some of whom object to his views.
Britain and France may be medium powers hampered by ailing economies, but they are seen to be world class players when it comes to holding official events of pomp and circumstance, serving up rich cultural references.
Macron’s visit included a state banquet with King Charles at Windsor castle, with the guest list including Mick Jagger and Elton John, rock stars who are also knights of the realm. Taittinger, a French Champagne house, provided an English sparkling wine for the formal toast, while etiquette and protocol required the menu to be written in French.
Chancellor Merz Visits
The German Chancellor followed in the strategy-rich steps of Macron, going to the U.K. for a one-day official visit. Friedrich Merz and Starmer signed July 17 the Kensington treaty, dubbed a “friendship treaty,” seeking to deepen military and bilateral economic links.
The search for closer ties for the U.K. with the Continental powers included a pledge of mutual assistance, an unprecedented almost-alliance between Berlin and London, prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Starmer’s meetings with Macron and Merz in the U.K. were seen as London’s bid to boost European military capability, and forge tighter political links with Berlin and Paris.
“These back-to-back visits symbolize and reinforce a return of the E3 group – France, Germany and the U.K. – as the driving force of European security,” Nicolai von Ondarza, associate fellow of Chatham House, a London-based think tank, said in a July 18 note.
“Despite Brexit, this configuration has the potential to tie the complex European security architecture together.”
That Anglo-German pact included a push for export sales of the Eurofighter Typhoon jet and Boxer armored vehicle. The two political leaders also discussed development of a deep-strike missile with a range of more than 2,000 km, Merz said on the BBC Radio 4 Today program.
That project for a European long-range missile follows the Ukrainian use of U.S.-built high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), reported to have a range of some 400 km, and the capability to hit targets inside Russia.
Merz and Starmer visited an Airbus factory at Stevenage, southeast England, which is also where European missile company MBDA has a significant British plant.
Those visits by Macron and Merz were a British effort to “reset” relations, but the long-term solution was for the U.K. to rejoin the E.U., a July 19 op ed in the daily Guardian said.
France, U.K. Deepen Nuclear Ties
The perceived importance of Macron’s visit to the U.K. could be seen with a senior officer, French air force general Bruno Cunat from the direction générale des relations internationales et de la stratégie (DGRIS), speaking about the summit at the weekly press conference.
The summit extended beyond “refreshing” the defense ties of the Lancaster House treaty, and also addressed economics, migration, emerging technology, and European security with the U.K., he said. The DGRIS focuses on international relations for the armed forces ministry.
Britain and France, as European nuclear powers, had a responsibility to demonstrate a “strategic solidarity” for European security and “modernize” their cooperation, he said.
There were two Lancaster House treaties – one for nuclear cooperation, the other for conventional warfare – he said. One of the stand-out points of the summit was the creation of an Anglo-French “oversight committee” to coordinate nuclear capabilities.
That stronger cooperation was in response to Moscow’s use of nuclear threats after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Those Russian threats made it necessary for Britain and France to talk closely to each other, and manage Moscow’s “vertical escalation” of nuclear threat, he said.
The two allied nations had signed the Northwood Declaration, seeking for the first time to coordinate “our independent nuclear deterrents,” Starmer said July 10. “From today, our adversaries will know that any extreme threat to this continent would prompt a response from our two nations.”
Starmer was speaking with Macron beside him at Northwood military headquarters, northwest London.
All Out War
There would be a modernization of the combined joint European force (CJEF), which was renamed combined joint force (CJF), Cunat said. The CJEF had been planned as an expeditionary force, but the threat was now seen as high intensity war on the European continent, as could be seen with Russia.
The modernization sought to make the Anglo-French force more robust, faster to respond, and open to friendly forces, drawing on the lines of the coalition of the willing, he said.
The CJF would be 10 times larger – 50,000 troops strong – and capable of responding in every domain, Starmer said at Northwood.
Regarding MBDA, the partner nations were entering a “phase of development,” Cunat said, in response to the lack of new joint missile programs since the 2010 Lancaster House treaty, and the production of joint weapons below half the company’s activity.
Budget Increase
Macron’s hop across the Channel opened high level communication on military and security policy from the French spy chief and the joint chief of staff, preparing the way to the president’s call for higher military spending.
Macron added €3.5 billion ($4.1 billion) to the draft 2026 defense budget, and a further €3 billion in the 2027 budget, setting the aims in his key note speech on the eve of the July 14 Bastille day parade on the Champs Elysées.
Those increases would hit in 2027 the spending target previously set for 2030, with a total budget of €64 billion brought forward, the commander in chief said.
This was a “national responsibility,” he said, pointing up the 2027 amount would double the €32 billion defense budget for 2017.
Macron ruled out the use of national debt to fund that budgetary boost for the services, which he said would be financed by greater economic activity and higher production.
“Our military independence is tied to our financial independence,” he said. “If our freedom carries a price, here it is.”
The president pointed up the French production of weapons, which offered “European solutions” for rearming Europe. Macron referred to the French new generation, surface-to-air SAMP/T missile system, a wide range of missiles, Rafale fighters, the first constellation of low-orbit satellites, artificial intelligence, radar, and anti-drone systems.
“Let us buy European in volume,” he said, adding that European power was the best shield in the face of uncertainty over the U.S., China, and the Russian threat.
Macron left it up to Prime Minister François Bayrou to find funds for that spending increase. Bayrou said July 15 the administration would slash €43.8 billion in government spending in 2026, with measures including cutting tax breaks for pensions, freezing civil service pay, and boosting productivity by cancelling two public holidays. The latter measure, axing Easter Monday and May 8, which marks the 1945 victory in Europe, sparked particular political ire.
France is under E.U. pressure to bring its national deficit to 3 pct of gross domestic product in 2029 from forecast deficit of 4.6 pct in 2026.
Spy Chief On The TV
A French spy chief helped prepare the ground for a spending boost for the armed forces.
Nicolas Lerner, the head of direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE), the foreign intelligence service, appeared July 9 on the television for the first time.
“Russia poses an existential threat in the medium to long term to Europe, democracy, and our values,” the spy chief told the LCI news channel, which was invited to DGSE headquarters.
It was clear Putin and those close to him were preparing the “ideological groundwork” for one day taking “military action,” Lerner said. That made it important for France and Nato allies “seriously to prepare for that.”
The spy chief said the first he heard about the U.S. air strike against nuclear targets in Iran last month was with a phone call to one of his mobile phones by his bedside just before 2 am. France, along with allies, gathered intelligence on friendly nations, he said, commenting on the rooftop of the U.S. embassy, which appeared to carry prominent listening devices.
“At the Place de la Concorde there is an installation which poses questions…” he said, in response to remarks by the TV reporter.
France To Be Feared
The media campaign continued with the joint chief of staff, army general Thierry Burkhard giving July 11 a rare news conference, which was unusually televised on a social platform.
Macron had asked Burkhard – a former army chief press officer – to speak to the press ahead of the commander in chief’s speech before the Bastille day parade.
Again, the Russian existential risk made its way to the television.
“The war in Ukraine is existential for Russia and it absolutely wants to reach what it has set as its target, or what Putin has set as target,” he said. “Weaken Europe and dismantle Nato – that is Russia’s objective.”
Russia was taking a heavy hit in Ukraine, but the nation would rearm and would pose a “real threat” on the eastern flank of Europe by 2030, the chief of staff said.
An update on the French national strategic review was also published July 13, and was available in French, English, and German.
For Macron, there was a call for France to arm up.
“In the end, let us be clear: to be free in the world, one must be feared. To be feared, one must be powerful,” he said in his key note speech in the gardens of Brienne House.