We recently held here a conference on the issue of defence cooperation between Britain and France, organised by the Franco-British Council. This is a non-governmental organisation that has just celebrated 40 years of working to bring thinkers together between France and the UK; and they now have an annual conference on defence once in France and the second year in the UK.
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It was a very interesting occasion because it brought together government people, senior military, industrialists, think tankers, academics and journalists on this set of issues; and it is probably the one area of the relationship which has moved forward more quickly than any other while I’ve been ambassador here. Whether we’re talking about operations between the two armed forces, preparing to deploy together in the future, training together, industrial cooperation over new equipment programmes or simply the habit of working together, thinking together about how to manage crises and deal with the unexpected, in all these areas I can see France and Britain working more and more instinctively together. And that was very much the theme of this conference here.
And it also showed the value of an organisation like the Franco-British Council, who can convene people from a wider sphere perhaps than two governments would to contribute to the debate that we’re having. So as the UK begins to prepare for our next white paper on defence and security which I imagine will happen after the next British election in 2015, it was actually very well timed to spend the day and a half thinking hard together between Britain and France.
