French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Britain today for a state visit that will combine royal solemnity with difficult political talks about stopping small boats carrying migrants crossing the English Channel.
Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will try to advance plans to send a peacekeeping mission to be deployed in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, despite apparent US indifference to the idea and Moscow's refusal to halt its attacks on the neighbouring country.
Macron's three-day visit at the invitation of King Charles III is the first state visit to the UK by a head of state from an EU country since Brexit and is a symbol of the British government's desire to restore relations with the bloc, which Britain left in 2020.
The French president and his wife Brigitte Macron will be welcomed at the Royal Air Force base "Northolt" in London by Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton, before being taken to Windsor Castle in a horse-drawn carriage through streets decorated with the flags of the United Kingdom and France.
The French couple will be greeted by a military guard of honour and will attend an official state banquet hosted by King Charles and Queen Camilla. The British royals will make a state visit to France in September 2023.
The monarch is not expected to engage in politics, but during the official banquet, Charles will make a broad appeal for international cooperation, saying that Britain and France "face multiple complex threats" that "know no borders" - and that "no fortress can protect us from them".
Macron will address both houses of the British parliament in the ornate Royal Gallery (a room in the Palace of Westminster that is used for such addresses by visiting foreign heads of state - ed.), before speaking with Starmer on migration, defence and investment.
"New tactics to stop the boats"
At a summit between Britain and France on 10 July, senior officials from both countries will discuss the thorny issue of migrants arriving in small boats across the English Channel, which has continued to cause problems for successive governments on both sides of the strait.
The UK takes in fewer asylum seekers than European countries from the Mediterranean, but thousands of migrants arrive each year use northern France as a launching point to reach the UK coast, either by hiding in trucks or (after the restriction of this route) by using small boats across one of the world's busiest sea lanes.
Over the years, London has struck a series of agreements with France to increase beach patrols and share intelligence in a bid to crack down on criminal gangs involved in people smuggling.
However, all this has had only a limited impact. Around 37,000 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats in 2024, the second highest annual figure after 2022, when 46,000 people crossed the channel. In the first six months of 2025, more than 20,000 people made the dangerous sea route, an increase of around 50 percent compared to the same period in 2024. (13,489 people). Dozens have died trying to reach British shores.
Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party whose centre-left government was elected a year ago, has promised to "break up the criminal gangs" behind organised human trafficking. His plan is based on closer cooperation with France and countries further up the migrant route from Africa and the Middle East. The UK is also seeking to strike deals with individual countries to take back rejected asylum seekers.
British officials have urged French police to use more force to stop the boats, and have welcomed the sight of French officers cutting up rubber dinghies with knives in recent days.
UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the French were "introducing significant new tactics to stop boats already in the water".
Britain is also pushing France to allow police to deploy to locate boats in deeper waters, a change the government in Paris is considering. Migrant rights campaigners and a police union have warned that this could put both migrants and officers at risk.
Starmer’s spokesman, Tom Wells, said some of the tactics being discussed were “operationally and legally complex, but we are working closely with the French.”
Maintaining focus on Ukraine
Starmer and Macron have worked closely together to mobilise support for Ukraine, although they have taken different approaches to US President Donald Trump, with Macron more likely to confront the US president than the soft-spoken Starmer.
Britain and France have led the effort – the so-called "coalition of the willing" - to form an international peacekeeping force for Ukraine, which would reinforce a future ceasefire with European troops and US security guarantees.
However, Trump has shown little enthusiasm for the idea and a ceasefire remains elusive. British officials say the idea of a "coalition of the willing" is still being developed, despite the difficulties, with Macron and Starmer due to join an international press conference on Thursday to discuss force planning.
Yesterday, Starmer spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about "significant progress being made by military planners", the British Prime Minister's Office said.
Translation from English: Simeon Tomov), BTA