PARIS: Britain and France have agreed a new three-year deal to stop undocumented migrants making the risky journey across the English Channel, according to a French interior ministry roadmap seen by AFP Wednesday. Under the deal, France pledged to increase law enforcement on the coast by more than half to fight irregular migration to Britain &mdash; reaching 1,400 officers by 2029. Britain will meanwhile provide up to 766 million euros ($897 million) in funding &mdash; though nearly a quarter of that will have strings attached and be paid only if the French measures work. The cross-Channel neighbors have been wrangling for months over the renewal of the Sandhurst treaty, which sets out the UK&#39;s financial contribution to French efforts to stop migrants attempting the perilous sea crossing to Britain. The UK has long accused France of doing too little to prevent would-be asylum seekers &mdash; a hot-button issue in British politics &mdash; from setting off from French shores, with smugglers and migrants taking ever-greater risks to avoid detection. As a result, London insisted it would only renew the Sandhurst treaty &mdash; first signed in 2018, extended in 2023 and set to expire this year &mdash; if it could impose conditions on how British taxpayers&#39; money is used by the French government. According to the French ministry roadmap, if the new measures do not deliver &quot;sufficient results, based on a joint annual assessment, the funding will be redirected to new actions.&quot; Even if the conditional portion is not paid, however, the UK&#39;s core contribution of 580 million euros still represents a 40-million-euro hike on what it paid under the last treaty. French interior minister Laurent Nunez and his UK counterpart Shabana Mahmood are set to lay out further details of the plan on Thursday while on a visit to a building site of an accommodation center for people set to be deported from France at Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk. 29 dead at sea&nbsp;The deal&#39;s renewal comes at a crunch time for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who faces political pressure from the right to curb immigration. Many believe Starmer&#39;s political survival relies on his Labor party defying predictions of a chastening set of defeats in May&#39;s local elections, caught between a surging Green party to the left and hard-right anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage&#39;s Reform UK. Besides the step-up in law enforcement on the beaches, France is looking to deploy drones, helicopters and digital resources to &quot;better prevent attempted crossings&quot; and reduce the number of departures, particularly of &quot;taxi boats,&quot; the roadmap said. &quot;A large share of the resources planned under this partnership will be concentrated from the start of the summer and throughout the summer period,&quot; traditionally the peak period for small boat crossings, the document says. By the terms of the international law of the sea, once a boat has set off from shore, the authorities can only intervene to save people from drowning. According to official figures from the British authorities, 41,472 people reached the UK irregularly in small boats in 2025, the second-highest figure since large-scale crossings were first detected in 2018. At least 29 migrants died at sea in the Channel in 2025, according to an AFP tally based on official French and British sources. The French side has pointed to the fact that since the beginning of 2026, arrivals to the United Kingdom have halved compared with the same period last year.&nbsp; Around 480 smugglers have also been arrested in 2025, according to the French interior ministry.

Europe

Under the deal, France pledges to increase law enforcement on the coast by more than half to fight irregular migration to Britain — reaching 1,400 officers by 2029; Britain will meanwhile provide up to $897 million in funding — though nearly a quarter of that will have strings attached and be paid only if the French measures work.

UK, France agree three-year deal to stop migrant crossings

MUMBAI: French President Emmanuel Macron begins a three-day visit to India on Tuesday, with talks focused on artificial intelligence cooperation and a potential multibillion-dollar Dassault Rafale fighter jet deal. France is seeking to expand its military partnership with New Delhi, with discussions expected on a contract for 114 additional French fighter jets. Macron and his wife Brigitte arrived around midnight on Monday in Mumbai, India&#39;s financial capital, for his fourth visit to India since taking office in 2017. He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi later on Tuesday. Macron will then travel to New Delhi for an artificial intelligence summit on Wednesday and Thursday. The visit follows New Delhi&#39;s confirmation last week that it intends to place a major order for Rafale jets, as well as the signing of a landmark free trade agreement between India and the European Union in January. New Delhi has sought over the past decade to reduce its dependence on Russia, its traditional main supplier of military equipment, turning to other countries while also pushing for more domestic production. An Indian defense ministry statement last week said the proposed purchase of Rafale jets had been cleared, with &quot;the majority&quot; of them to be manufactured in India. The statement did not specify the exact number of jets New Delhi would purchase, but a New Delhi defense ministry source said that 114 was likely. Christophe Jaffrelot, an India specialist at Sciences Po Center for International Studies in Paris, described the potential &euro;30 billion ($35 billion) deal for 114 Rafales as the &quot;contract of the century&quot; and an achievement for bilateral ties. If finalized, the jets would add to the 36 Rafales India purchased for its air force in 2016 and the 26 it has ordered for its navy. Negotiations over the additional aircraft still need to be concluded with manufacturer Dassault Aviation, but the French presidency has voiced optimism that an agreement could be reached. &#39;Good chemistry&#39;&nbsp;Modi and Macron will also inaugurate on Tuesday India&#39;s first helicopter final assembly line via videoconference from Mumbai, a joint venture between India&#39;s Tata Group and Airbus. The facility in Vemagal, in the southern state of Karnataka near the tech hub of Bengaluru, will manufacture the Airbus H125, the company&#39;s best-selling single-engine helicopter. France has emerged as one of India&#39;s defense and economic partners in the last decade. &quot;Through this visit, we seek to further strengthen cooperation&quot; with India, Macron&#39;s office said. This week&#39;s talks are also expected to address global economic uncertainty triggered by <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/china-says-canada-deal-not-aimed-at-us-after-tariff-threat" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">tariff policies under US President Donald Trump</a>, as well as China&#39;s influence in the region. Modi&rsquo;s office said discussions would focus on &quot;cementing the strategic partnership and further diversifying it into new and emerging areas.&quot; Bilateral trade between France and India, driven largely by defense and aerospace &mdash; India&#39;s commercial fleet includes a substantial number of Airbus aircraft &mdash; stands at around &euro;15 billion ($18 billion) annually. French foreign direct investment in India totals nearly &euro;13 billion ($15 billion). &quot;There is apparently a good chemistry, a good personal rapport,&quot; Jaffrelot said. One sensitive issue remains Ukraine: India has not condemned Russia&#39;s 2022 invasion and has <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/russia-says-india-has-not-said-it-will-halt-oil-purchases" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">continued buying oil from Moscow</a>. US President Donald Trump has said India had committed to halting the purchases, though that has not been formally confirmed by New Delhi. &quot;If the Indians stop buying Russian oil, they won&#39;t be blamed for abstaining at the UN,&quot; Jaffrelot added.

India

The visit comes days after New Delhi confirmed its intention to place a major order for Rafale fighter jets, alongside the signing of a landmark free trade agreement between India and the European Union in January, as France moves to deepen and expand its military partnership with India.

Articles tagged with "India France ties"

UK, France agree three-year deal to stop migrant crossings

France's Macron eyes fighter jet deal in India