Paris
CNN
—
Britain said on Friday it would pay $576 million over the next three years as part of a deal with France to combat illegal immigration across the English Channel..
The deal was announced during a joint summit between British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday.
The money will fund a new immigration detention center in France and the deployment of 500 French security and support agents “to enable faster detection of attempted crossings” by small boats, according to a joint statement from the two countries.
At Friday’s meeting, the two leaders stressed their countries’ deep ties, after several years of tensions over post-Brexit negotiations, fishing rights, a submarine deal with Australia and immigration.
“The level of ambition in this plan is exactly what we need,” Macron said, adding that “this is not a deal between the UK and France, but between the UK and the EU.”
Sunak, who is facing criticism from a human rights group for his moves to block immigration through channels with a new law criticized as racist, illegal and impracticalhe said the UK will “always honor our international treaty obligations”.
The UK has seen a rise in the number of illegal immigrants paying people smuggling gangs to smuggle them onto small, unseaworthy boats. Many of these ships have sunk and people have died.
The 19-page joint statement from the Élysée Palace focused on the potential for greater defense cooperation between the two nuclear powers, from the deployment of fighter jets on each other’s aircraft carriers to the joint production of future nuclear missiles. cruise.
On Ukraine, the leaders promised closer cooperation, especially regarding the supply of equipment and ammunition to kyiv.
They also pledged support for the training of Ukrainian marines in the UK, while offering to seek “security guarantees” with Ukraine “that will help (Kiev) defend itself in the long term and block potential future attacks,” the statement said. joint.
