Meeting between Catherine Colonna and her british counterpart (March 10th 2023)

Communique issued by the ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs

The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, hosted a meeting with her British counterpart, James Cleverly, on 10 March 2023, on the sidelines of the 36th Franco-British summit, which signals fresh momentum in the relationship between our two countries, five years after the Sandhurst summit.

The two ministers reiterated their shared desire to coordinate more closely on major international issues, primarily our joint support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal and illegal aggression of which it is the victim, as well as on Iran, Africa and the Indo-Pacific region.

The ministers also decided to work together closely on preparations for the next summits of the European Political Community (EPC), in particular the one organized by Moldova in Chișinău on 1 June 2023, before the one to be organized by the United Kingdom. Mme Colonna and Mr Cleverly recalled that the challenges facing our two countries, such as energy security, the protection of our critical infrastructure and the fight against illegal immigration, call for responses on a European continental scale, for which the EPC provides a useful framework.

The two ministers also signalled the importance of properly preparing for the next NATO summit, which will take place in Vilnius in July, to implement the decisions of the Madrid summit of June 2022. They emphasized the need for complementarity, bolstered in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine, between the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union.

Finally, as regards global issues and the necessary strengthening of multilateralism, France and the United Kingdom reiterated their ambitions in terms of the climate and biodiversity and the importance of working together to strengthen United Nations governance.