London – French president Emmanuel Macron, arrives in Great Britain on Tuesday for a state visit that mixes the royal boato with thorny political conversations on preventing migrants from crossing the La Mancha channel in small boats.
Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also try to advance in the plans for a security force after the outdoor fire for Ukraine, despite the apparent American indifference towards the idea and refusal of Russia to stop the attack on his neighbor.
The three -day visit of Macron, at the invitation of King Carlos III, is the first state visit to the United Kingdom by a head of the European Union from Brexit, and a symbol of the British government’s desire to restore relations with the block that the United Kingdom left with mooring in 2020.
The president and his wife, Brigitte Macron, will be taken to Windsor Castle by horse -thrown carriage, received by a military honor guard and treated with a state banquet organized by King and Queen Camilla. The British real made a state visit to France in September 2023.
Macron will also go to both Chambers of the Parliament of Great Britain in the fabulously ornate royal gallery of the building before sitting to talk to Starmer on Migration, Defense and Investment.
On Thursday at a summit of the United Kingdom, senior government officials of the two countries will discuss the crosses of small boats, a thorny issue for successive governments on both sides of the channel.
Great Britain receives less asylum applicants than the European countries of the Mediterranean, but thousands of migrants every year use northern France as a launch point to reach the United Kingdom, either by keeping in trucks or, after a repression of that route, in small boats in one of the most busy shipping lanes in the world.
The United Kingdom has reached a series of agreements with France over the years to increase beach patrols and share intelligence in an attempt to interrupt the smuggling gangs.
Everything has had only a limited impact. Around 37,000 people were detected that crossed the La Mancha 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, in approximately 50% from the same period last year. Dozens of people have died trying the crossing.
Starmer, whose central left government was chosen a year ago, has pledged to “crush gangs” behind organized caution. Its plan is based on a closer cooperation with France and with countries above the route of migrants from Africa and the Middle East. The United Kingdom also aims to reach agreements with individual nations to recover failed asylum seekers.
British officials have been pressing so that the French police intervene more strongly to stop the boats, and welcomed the officers who cut rubber boats with knives in recent days.
The Secretary of the Interior of the United Kingdom, Yvette Cooper, said that the French are “bringing new important tactics to stop the boats that are in the water.”
Great Britain is also pressing France for officers to intervene against boats in deeper waters, a change that the Government in Paris is considering. Activists for the rights of migrants and a police union warn that doing so could endanger both migrants and officers.
Starmer spokesman Tom Wells said that some of the tactics discussed are “operationally and legally complex, but we are working closely with the French.”
The two leaders have worked in close collaboration to gather support for Ukraine, although they have adopted contrasting approaches to the president of the United States, Donald Trump, with Macron more willing to challenge the US president than the Starmer Emoliente.
Great Britain and France have led efforts to form an international strength of peace maintenance so that Ukraine reinforces a high future with European troops and equipment and security guarantees of the United States.
However, Trump has shown little enthusiasm for the idea, and a high fire is still difficult to reach. British officials say that the idea “The Willing Coalition” is alive and well, with Macron and Starmer who will join an international videoconference on Thursday to discuss force planning.
Starmer spoke with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday about the “significant progress made by military planners,” said British leader’s office.
