UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (L) and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands during a press conference at the conclusion of a joint military visit to the Northwood Headquarters Northwood, on July 10, 2025 in London, England.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
The U.K. and France have announced a reciprocal returns agreement for migrants crossing the English Channel. The two countries, whose leaders, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, met at a summit in London on Thursday (July 10, 2025), also announced that a peacekeeping force for Ukraine was ready for deployment, following any ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.
Paris and London also, for the first time, would coordinate strategy on their nuclear deterrents. The announcements come following a major reset in ties between London and Paris, marked by Mr. Macron’s three day state-visit to the U.K.
The new migration pilot scheme will involve the U.K. returning to France, up to 50 individuals per week who cross the Channel illegally. In return the U.K. will admit migrants on a one-for-one basis. These individuals will possibly have ties to the U.K. , will be vetted and would not previously have tried to enter the U.K. illegally.
“We accept genuine asylum seekers because it is right that we offer a haven to those in most dire need,” Mr. Starmer said at a press conference after the Summit, adding that it was also not practical to not cooperate with other countries on the issue of migration.
Mr. Starmer said the purpose of this pilot was to break the business model of people smuggling gangs. At present there are about 800 people who arrive per week via ‘small boats’ crossing the English Channel from France.
Mr. Macron repeatedly blamed Brexit (Britain’s exit from the E.U. in 2016) for the lack of coordination on the issue of migration.
“By leaving a legal black hole, Brexit became the problem,” he said, arguing that the current arrangement was “pragmatic”.
On Thursday, Mr. Starmer also announced that the “coalition of the willing” of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine was ready.
“I am very pleased to say today that these plans are mature and we are putting them on a long-term footing,” Mr. Starmer said during a conference call with allies, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. There are a total of 30 (mostly European) countries that are part of the coalition. Significantly, U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg and two U.S. Senators, Richard Blumenthal (Democrat) and Lindsey Graham (Republican), were on the call as per Downing Street.
Mr. Trump had expressed his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, and Russia had conducted a heavy aerial attack on Ukraine overnight on Tuesday and again on Thursday, as countries met in Rome to pledge money for Ukraine’s recovery.
The new coalition would have its headquarters in Paris, which will rotate to London after 12 months, with plans for a coordination cell in Kyiv, a Downing Street press statement said. The Kyiv-based cell will be headed by a two-star military officer. The coalition plans to provide logistics, armament and training experts to help regenerate Ukraine’s land forces, the statement said. The coalition will also assist the Ukrainian air force with “air policing” and will also help the Black Sea Task Force (of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey) with removing mines and securing transit to and from Ukrainian ports, the statement said.
The countries also announced that they would be coordinating their nuclear deterrence as the only two nuclear powers in Europe and permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The U.K., as a member of the nuclear planning group of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), participates in nuclear deterrence for Europe along with the U.S. France has, until now, maintained independence as far as its nuclear deterrent policy is concerned.
On Thursday (July 10, 2025), Mr. Macron continued to stress that the two countries’ nuclear policies would remain “independent” and that the deterrent’s “strategic ambiguity” (i.e., a deliberate lack of clarity on the nature and circumstances of use of such nuclear weapons) would be maintained.
As part of the Summit’s outcomes, the countries had also announced that the state-owned French energy company EDF would invest $1.35 billion (an almost four percentage point decline in its stake, to 12.5%) in the U.K.’s Sizewell C nuclear power plant. The U.K. would invest $191 million Eutelsat, a European competitor to Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Published – July 11, 2025 03:00 am IST
