- French-British relations strained over Brexit deal, Australia over submarine
- A French official said Paris wanted warmer ties with Britain
- The British report focuses only on Ukraine
SHLOS ELMAU, Germany, June 26 (Reuters) – After clashes last year over sausages and submarines, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Boris Johnson smiled at Sunday’s G7 summit, with Brexit disputes not even coming up in bilateral talks. focused mainly on Ukraine.
The leaders of Europe’s two main military forces cheerfully exchanged courtesies at the start of the meeting, reflecting what a French presidency official described as a deliberate attempt to “revive relations and warm them”.
The two had decided to focus on Ukraine and the aftermath of the war there, rather than on issues that had divided them in the past.
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“The word Brexit was not mentioned, nor was the Northern Ireland Protocol,” the official said, referring to the terms agreed by Britain for trade between the EU and the British-ruled province, which Johnson threatened to tear apart.
At the last G-7 summit a year ago off the coast of the West of England, Johnson called for new rules for importing cold meat into Northern Ireland, a brawl called “sausage wars”. In September, Paris became angry with London over a tripartite deal with the United States to supply submarines to Australia, replacing Canberra’s plans to buy French.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hold a bilateral meeting during a summit of G7 leaders at the Bavarian castle Schloss Elmau, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, June 26, 2022. REUTERS / Benoit Tessier / Pool
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Johnson’s office said he and Macron had agreed to provide more support for Ukraine.
“They agreed that this was a critical moment in the course of the conflict and that there was an opportunity to reverse the course of the war,” a Downing Street spokesman said in a statement.
Prior to the meeting with Macron, Johnson was asked if France and Germany were doing enough to help Ukraine. Johnson, praised by Kyiv for providing support seen as more stable than some other European leaders, focused his response on Germany, without mentioning France.
A second French presidency official said Macron had raised the issue of the European political community, an idea the president raised last month.
The aim would be to create a new structure that allows for closer cooperation with countries that want EU membership or want closer ties with the bloc, which suggests that Britain after Brexit could be part of it.
The official said Johnson was “very enthusiastic” about the idea because it could facilitate co-operation on specific topics with Europe without being part of the union, saying he had previously proposed a similar initiative in 2016. The official said that Johnson is welcome in claiming that the idea is his.
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Report by John Irish; Edited by Toby Chopra and Angelo Amante
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