British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron met at the U.K. Northwood military headquarters outside of London yesterday, amounting to a tightening of Anglo-French strategic relations. The documents that came out of the summit cover several areas, including dealing with migrants crossing the English Channel and economic cooperation; but the centerpieces are closer coordination of the two countries’ nuclear forces and an expansion of joint military structures. Their target, not surprisingly, is Russia, and secondarily, Iran and China.
The new agreements are a follow-on to the Lancaster House Treaties of 2010, signed by then-French President Nicholas Sarkozy and then-U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron. At that time, Nouvelle Solidarité, the LaRouche publication in Paris, characterized the Lancaster House Treaties as a step in the process towards a new Entente Cordiale, the 1904 treaty that aligned France with the British Empire, leading to disastrous results for France in 1914-1918. “What Nicolas Sarkozy [did in the new] Entente Cordiale continues the trend towards the alliance with the [United] Kingdom that de Gaulle and others in France often called ‘Perfidious Albion,’” reported Nouvelle Solidarité.
Yesterday’s “Northwood Declaration” goes even another step further in that direction, what one might even call a Nuclear Entente Cordiale.
In a separate joint nuclear statement, they reiterated the long-held view that Paris and London “do not see situations arising in which the vital interests of either France or the United Kingdom could be threatened without the vital interest of the other also being threatened. France and the United Kingdom agree that there is no extreme threat to Europe that would not prompt a response by our two nations.”
Therefore, “France and the United Kingdom have therefore decided to deepen their nuclear cooperation and coordination. A U.K.-France Nuclear Steering Group will be established to provide political direction for this work. It will be led by the Presidency of the French Republic and the Cabinet Office and will coordinate across nuclear policy, capabilities and operations.”
In a third document, entitled “Lancaster House 2.0: Declaration on Modernizing U.K.-French Defence and Security Cooperation,” Starmer and Macron announced that they “have decided to reboot, modernize and build upon our bilateral defense and security relationship.” This includes further statements on nuclear coordination; expanding the existing Combined Joint Expeditionary Force into a 50,000-strong Combined Joint Force, which could operate with NATO or bilaterally; “Establish a mechanism to share, coordinate and synchronize military activity and the deployment of U.K. and French forces globally, ensuring we are providing the most effective deterrence posture"; and, “Use the CJF structures to underpin the Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine. The force will provide the joint planning framework to cohere the Coalition, ensure joint operational and strategic messaging. It will provide Coalition leadership and command and control for the planning and operational deployment of the Coalition covering all five domains, preparing for the operational deployment of the CJF in the event of a ceasefire—which can be supported by allies.”
