PARIS — Britain will continue to pursue strong defense ties with allies in Europe in general and France in particular despite London's pledge to leave the European Union following a referendum vote in favor of Brexit, said British Defence Minister Michael Fallon.
More business deals are part of that strong Anglo-French defense link, he told attendees Monday of the Summer Defence University, a two-day high-level conference held at Ecole Polytechnique, an elite university backed by the French Defence Ministry.
"And we're intensifying our close friendship with France," he said. "Since the Lancaster House Treaties were signed six years ago our ententes evolved with cooperation on all fronts and we look forward to working together with all our friends and partners across Europe, not least by cooperating between our high-tech defense industries.
"That especially applies to France where we want to see companies with strong footprints in both our nations increasingly doing business."
Britain and France signed in 2010 the Lancaster House bilateral agreements on joint military operations, development and production of selected arms programs, and nuclear weapons.
That cross-channel cooperation has also undergone tests in arms procurement. On display outside the conference there was a Safran Patroller, a tactical UAV that France picked over a competing offer of the Thales Watchkeeper, which is in service with the British Army.
Training of French and UK services under the combined joint expeditionary force will lead to French Rafales and British Typhoon fighter jets, Leclerc and Challenger tanks, and Charles de Gaulle and Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers working together under an "entente supérieure," Fallon said. Among the European multilateral and bilateral ties, the UK is working more closely with Germany in a bid to fight "terror threats" and help "fragile states" build capacity.
Fallon also noted Britain is committed to the US, which is seen as a constant ally.
"We're proud of our special relationship with the United States," he said. "Proud of our shared interests and responsibilities and proud that our friendship continues to broaden and deepen."
The day before, US President Barack Obama had assured British Prime Minister Theresa May that America would remain the UK's closest political, commercial and military ally, but London could not expect a fast-track bilateral trade deal before Washington signed multilateral pacts with EU and Asia-Pacific nations. The two leaders were at the G20 summit meeting in Hangzhou, China.
Plans for a Brexit has revived talk of forming a European defense policy, with French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian saying a "window of opportunity" has opened.
"We have a window of opportunity between now and December for some strong European initiatives," he told the conference. This was now the time to be "very vigilant and highly mobilized."
European security and border protection will be on the table when EU partners meet Sept. 16 at an informal summit in Bratislava, Slovakia, one of the European responses to the Brexit vote. French President Francois Hollande said in July he would propose plans to strengthen European defense cooperation.
London long resisted forming an EU defense system, which the UK saw as a pale copy of NATO, while Paris had expressed a need for a European approach independent of Washington. A European military system is seen as needed to respond to a perceived threat from Russia in the east, while in the south, on the Mediterranean, there are growing crises in Libya and the Middle East.
On the debate for France returning to spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said security and defense were intertwined and there was a need to boost the budget.
"The 2 percent target is achievable," he said. "This level is necessary. It could be lower, it could higher." Protection of French citizens and gathering support against a populist threat were the two priorities.
This was the first time a prime minister had attended the conference, organized by the think tank Compagnie Européene d'Intelligence Stratégique.
The chief of the Defense Staff, Army Gen. Pierre de Villiers, said the 2 percent was needed to fund the wide span of operations and acquire and renew the equipment stock. That called for the planned €32.7 billion (US $36.6 billion), excluding pensions, for the 2017 defense budget to rise to €41 billion in 2020.
There was consensus among senior politicians of both the left-wing Socialist and conservative Les Republicains (LR) parties for funding that 2 percent.
Patricia Adam, Socialist head of the parliamentary defense committee, said there is a short-term need for €1 billon for nuclear weapons, €1 billion to pay the 11,000 troops maintained in a policy reversal and €2 billion to €2.5 billion to plug capability gaps.
"Two percent is the cornerstone of our sovereignty," Sen. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former prime minister and LR head of the foreign affairs, defense and armed forces committees of the Senate, said in a forceful delivery.
One of the challenges in the next decade will be annual funding of €5 billion to €6 billion for the next-generation nuclear ballistic missile submarine, a senior defense official said.
France presently spends about 1.5 percent of its GDP on defense and is under pressure to reduce its deep budget deficit. Paris had a 2015 deficit of 3.6 percent of GDP and has long struggled to bring that below 3 percent as required by EU rules.
