Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 19-Jan-18 World View -- Britain and France renew 1904 Entente Cordiale with new military agreement

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Britain and France renew 1904 Entente Cordiale with new military agreement
  
• Britain will pay £44.5 million to renew the Le Touquet migration agreement
  

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**** Britain and France renew 1904 Entente Cordiale with new military agreement
****


Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May meeting at Sandhurst Military Academy on Thursday (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

On Thursday, France's president Emmanuel Macron visited Britain's
prime minister Theresa May at Sandhurst Military Academy near London,
where they announced a collection of military agreements.

The agreements are being described as a new Entente Cordiale
("Friendly Agreement"). This refers to an agreement that the two
countries signed on April 8, 1904, resolving long-standing colonial
disputes in North Africa, and creating a united front against Germany
a decade before the Great War (World War I) began. Under the
agreement, France recognized Britain's control over Egypt, and Britain
recognized France's control over Morocco. When the German government
sent Kaiser Wilhelm II to Morocco in March 1905 to challenge France's
hegemony there, Britain sided with France.

The new agreement creates a military alliance between the two largest
military powers in Europe, the only two nuclear powers in Europe, and
Europe's two permanent members of the United States Security Council.
With Britain leaving the European Union, it was felt that this
bilateral alliance between the two countries takes on increased
importance.

The elements of the agreement include the following:

• In 2019, Britain will send three RAF CH-47 Chinook transport
  heavy lift helicopters to provide logistical support to Operation
  Barkhane, the French operation targeting jihadists in Mali and the
  African Sahel, along with 50-60 support staff.
  
  
• France and Britain will deepen their operational cooperation in
  Estonia. In 2019, France will send troops to join the UK-led battle
  group in Estonia where 800 British soldiers are helping to guard
  Nato's eastern flank with Russia, as a "proportionate response to
  Russia’s more assertive foreign policy and military activity.".
  
  
• By 2020, Britain and France will achieve full operating capability
  for a Combined Joint Expeditionary Force of 10,000 that will be ready
  to deploy "quickly and effectively to face any threat."
  
  
• Britain's intelligence agencies -- MI5, MI6, GCHQ -- will work
  more closely together with their French counterparts -- DGSE and
  DGSI.

According to May, "Together we will continue to play a full role to
improve the security of the continent." BBC and UK-France Security and Defense Agreement (PDF) and History.com and International Business Times

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**** Britain will pay £44.5 million to renew the Le Touquet migration agreement
****

As we described two days ago

France's president Emmanuel Macron is demanding additional payment
from Britain to continue the Le Touquet agreement.

The Le Touquet Agreement was signed in February 2003, and it grants a
small region of France's land in Calais to Britain, so that Britain
can set up border controls on the French side of the English Channel,
rather than on the British side.

Without the Le Touquet Agreement, migrants arriving in Calais could
travel to Britain with no hindrance. With the agreement, migrants
arriving in Calais are on British soil as they approach the Channel
Tunnel, and so they are subject to British border controls before they
ever cross the Channel. It's generally agreed that this arrangement
has prevented huge waves of migrants from crossing the Channel to
reach Britain.

However, French officials have long complained that they bear the
economic consequences of the Le Touquet agreement. Thousands of
migrants have traveled from countries like Syria, Afghanistan,
Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan to Calais in hopes of crossing the
Channel, but instead they get stopped in Calais, and the Calais
authorities become responsible for providing humane treatment and
dealing with any associated crime, as well as migrant camps like The
Jungle. Without the agreement, they would simply travel on to Dover,
and Britain would have all those problems.

So on Thursday, Britain's prime minister Theresa May agree to invest
£44.5 million ($62 million) to reinforce security measures in Calais,
including fencing, CCTV and detection technology.

Britain also committed to taking in a higher proportion of migrants
than they have in the past. In particular, they will resettle 480
unaccompanied children currently in Calais. France 24 and BBC and Reuters and BBC

Related Articles

• France's Emmanuel Macron vows no more Jungle refugee camps in Calais (17-Jan-2018)
  
  
• Afghan and Eritrean migrants clash at site of 'Jungle' in Calais France (24-Aug-2017)
  
  
• France promotes 'G5 Sahel' peacekeeping force in west Africa after jihadist attacks (16-Aug-2017)
  
  
• A precarious Estonia joins the troubled euro zone (30-Dec-2010)
  
  
• Ethnic Russians rioting in Estonia after Soviet statue was moved (28-Apr-2007)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Britain, France, Entente Cordiale,
Emmanuel Macron, Theresa May, Sandhurst Military Academy,
Egypt, Morocco, Germany, Mali, Sahel, Estonia,
MI5, MI6, GCHQ, DGSE, DGSI, Calais, Le Touquet agreement,
English Channel, Dover

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John J. Xenakis
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