French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Britain on Tuesday for a state visit mixing royal pageantry with thorny political talks about stopping migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.
Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also try to advance plans for a post-ceasefire security force for Ukraine, despite apparent US indifference to the idea and Russia’s refusal to halt the onslaught on its neighbor.
Macron’s three-day visit, at the invitation of King Charles III, is the first state visit to the UK by a European Union head of state since Brexit, and a symbol of the British government’s desire to reset relations with the bloc that the UK acrimoniously left in 2020.
The president and his wife, Brigitte Macron, will be driven to Windsor Castle by horse-drawn carriage, greeted by a military honor guard and treated to a state banquet hosted by the king and Queen Camilla. The British royals made a state visit to France in September 2023.
Macron also will address both houses of Britain’s Parliament in the building’s fabulously ornate Royal Gallery before sitting down for talks with Starmer on migration, defense and investment.
At a UK-France summit on Thursday, senior government officials from the two countries will discuss small-boat crossings, a thorny issue for successive governments on both sides of the channel.
Britain receives fewer asylum-seekers than Mediterranean European countries, but thousands of migrants each year use northern France as a launching point to reach the UK, either by stowing away in trucks or — after a clampdown on that route — in small boats across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The UK has struck a series of deals with France over the years to increase patrols of beaches and share intelligence in an attempt to disrupt the smuggling gangs.
It has all had only a limited impact. About 37,000 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats in 2024, the second-highest annual figure after 46,000 in 2022. More than 20,000 people made the crossing in the first six months of 2025, up by about 50% from the same period last year. Dozens of people have died attempting the crossing.
Starmer, whose center-left government was elected a year ago, has pledged to ” smash the gangs ” behind organized people-smuggling. His plan rests on closer cooperation with France and with countries further up the migrants’ route from Africa and the Middle East. The UK also aims to strike deals with individual nations to take back failed asylum seekers.
British officials have been pushing for French police to intervene more forcefully to stop the boats, and welcomed the sight of officers slashing rubber dinghies with knives in recent days.
UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the French are “bringing in important new tactics to stop boats that are in the water.”
Britain also is pushing France to let officers intervene against boats in deeper waters, a change the government in Paris is considering. Campaigners for migrants’ rights and a police union warn that doing so could endanger both migrants and officers.
Starmer spokesperson Tom Wells said some of the tactics being discussed are “operationally and legally complex, but we’re working closely with the French.”
The two leaders have worked closely together to rally support for Ukraine, though they have taken contrasting approaches to US President Donald Trump, with Macron more willing to challenge the American president than the emollient Starmer.
Britain and France have led efforts to form an international peacekeeping force for Ukraine to reinforce a future ceasefire with European troops and equipment and US security guarantees.
Trump has shown little enthusiasm for the idea, however, and a ceasefire remains elusive. British officials say the “coalition of the willing” idea is alive and well, with Macron and Starmer due to join an international videoconference on Thursday to discuss planning for the force.
Starmer spoke with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday about the “significant progress being made by military planners,” the British leader’s office said. (AP)
