UK and France commit to greater defence co-operation at Paris Summit

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu have pledged to work together to ensure Russia's invasion of Ukraine will fail and set out how UK and French armed forces can further integrate over the next decade. 

New defence and security initiatives were discussed at the 36th UK-France Summit in Paris to strengthen the military co-operation between the two neighbouring nations.  

Mr Wallace said: "We have agreed to strengthen our defence and security partnership, committing to look at areas of co-operation to increase the interoperability of our joint defence capabilities – and to advance key projects to develop complex weapons systems."  

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"Our shared and ongoing support for Ukraine remains unwavering. We will continue to provide that support for as long as it takes," the Defence Secretary added.  

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met President Macron met earlier at the summit where the two agreed on a shared vision to meet the greatest challenges the UK and France face. 

The two countries agreed to coordinate deployments of aircraft carriers to provide a complementary and more persistent European presence in regions of shared interest. 

They have also committed to doing all they can to strengthen Ukraine's ability to fight against Russia.  

This included working together on providing Ukraine with weapons and continuing the training of Ukrainian personnel, including marines, in the UK. 

Over the next decade the two countries have committed to a "vision to enable seamless operations and draw on common intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data", said the Ministry of Defence. 

During the summit, an agreement was reached to work together on future complex weapons systems such as the Future Cruise and Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) programme.  

The discussions also covered the topics of cyber security, European air defence capabilities, and homeland defence.  

An agreement was also reached to enhance the capability of the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF) in line with the changing security environment.