Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Anglo-French Summit.
Anglo-French Summit
A Downing Street Spokesman advised journalists that the Prime Minister was currently talking by phone to President Chirac of France ahead of tomorrow’s Anglo-French Summit in Le Touquet to brief him on his meeting with President Bush in Washington on Friday. The Prime Minister would be attending the Summit with Geoff Hoon, Jack Straw, David Blunkett, Charles Clarke, the Chief-of-the-Defence Staff and Denis MacShane. Over the course of the day, all would have meetings with their French counterparts.
The Spokesman took the opportunity to flag up a number of areas where we expected to see some concrete outcomes. On European defence, the Summit would agree a Declaration which would set out a number of areas where both we and the French Government wanted to deepen our co-operation. He reminded journalists that the whole European Security and Defence Initiative had initially emerged from a previous Franco-British Summit in St Malo in 1999. At Le Touquet, we would aim to take a further step forward in relation to crisis management, on our determination to tackle together common threats to our security and also on the continuing discussion over improving military capabilities.
The Spokesman said that time would also be spent discussing the issue of Africa as a follow-up to last year’s G8 Summit at Kananaskis. They would also look ahead to this year’s G8 Summit which the French would be hosting at Evian.
The Spokesman said that David Blunkett and his French opposite number, Nicolas Sarkozy, would agree a number of steps to deepen co-operation on asylum and immigration. This would include greater use of juxtaposed immigration control - in which French and British Immigration Officials would work on opposite sides of the Channel. Similarly, steps would be agreed to increase the use of detection equipment, particularly on the French side of the Channel.
The Spokesman advised that Charles Clarke and his French counterpart, Luc Ferry, would agree a Memorandum of Understanding which would seek to deepen educational links between France and the UK. This would cover a range of issues - from greater provision of language immersion training through to developing more concrete networks between higher educational establishments.
The Spokesman said that EU issues would also be discussed at Le Touquet. There were many common points between us and the French in the ongoing Future of Europe Convention and no doubt they would take the opportunity to take stock of progress so far. Other European topics were also likely to be discussed, including the issue of CAP reform on which we had recently received the Commission’s proposals. The Summit would also discuss international issues, including Iraq, the Middle East and the war on terror.
Asked how we were intending to handle the issue of France’s invitation to Robert Mugabe to attend a Franco-African Summit in Paris this month, the Spokesman said that discussions were ongoing in Brussels about this matter. EU Foreign Ministers had discussed it at last Monday’s GAC without reaching a solution, which was why Ambassadors in Brussels had convened to talk about the issue last Thursday. They were due to return to the topic this Wednesday. Our view was well known. Our objective was to ensure the roll-over and continuation of the targeted sanctions regime. In the meantime, substantive negotiations were continuing to take place amongst Ambassadors in Brussels.
Asked if the British Government believed that Mr Mugabe should be dis-invited from the Franco-African Summit and should certainly not be invited to the forthcoming EU-Africa Summit, the Spokesman said that it would not be helpful to pre-judge the discussions currently going on in Brussels. That said, Jack Straw had made the point at last Monday’s GAC meeting that it was important to have an effective sanctions regime which targeted individuals in the Zimbabwean Government. That was precisely the purpose of the current travel ban and related measures, such as the financial assets freeze. The challenge that Ambassadors in Brussels were facing was how to continue the sanctions regime which was already in place while taking into account other events looming on the horizon. That work was ongoing. In the meantime, it was important for people to be patient and wait for Wednesday when we hoped that a solution would emerge. Asked whether the issue would be discussed tomorrow at Le Touquet, the Spokesman said he expected it would be raised during the course of the day. However, the negotiation was taking place in Brussels, not Le Touquet.
Questioned as to whether the Prime Minister was optimistic about persuading President Chirac to sign up to the UK and US’s stance on Iraq, the Spokesman pointed out that the French Government had voted in favour of Resolution 1441 when it had been agreed last year. Moreover, the French had signed up to the unanimous declaration which had emerged from last Monday’s meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels. This had made it absolutely clear that Saddam Hussein must choose the pathway of co-operation with the weapons inspectors and that that co-operation must entail more than we had seen so far.
Asked whether the discussion on Africa would include the question of oil resources as a possible alternative source of energy, the Spokesman said that it was important to wait and see what the Summit would yield. That said, it should be remembered that both the UK and France had taken a leading role in ensuring that last year’s G8 Summit in Kananaskis had given a concrete response to the NEPAD initiative. Both countries shared a continuing determination to follow through on that work. The Prime Minister had met President Mbeki of South Africa on Saturday at Chequers. Tomorrow’s Summit would provide a valuable opportunity for the Prime Minister to brief President Chirac on that meeting and to discuss the issues which had been raised. This was particularly relevant given the President was expecting Africa to be one of the core themes at the G8 Summit in Evian later this year.
Asked if it was ‘normal’ for the Prime Minister to take the Chief-of-the-Defence Staff with him to a Summit, the Spokesman said yes. He pointed out that this was a Franco-British Summit, not a Blair-Chirac Summit, and the cast list was therefore pretty typical of this kind of event.
Asked how he would characterise relations between the Prime Minister and President Chirac, the Spokesman said that they were good.
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