2011 FBC Annual Defence Conference
My Lords,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am very pleased to welcome you to the French
residence, especially those of you who are joining
us for the last part of the conference.
I would like at the outset to congratulate the British
section
of
the
Franco-British
Council
for
its
initiative. As you know, the Council has a longstanding interest in defence issues. The two very
successful roundtables it organized in 2010 in
partnership with RUSI are the most recent examples
of its endeavours and laid the groundwork for
today’s event.
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Today’s conference was conceived in the aftermath
of the defence treaties signed at the Anglo-French
summit on 2nd November 2010.
The idea was to
measure the progress made and think about new
fields of cooperation. We considered at the time that
it was a welcome initiative, entirely in line with the
very mission of the Council, which is to foster
discussion
among
leading
experts
from
both
countries. For this reason, the French Embassy was
very happy to associate itself with the Council as it
did last year and to host the conference. Today, in
the light of the Libyan crisis, we can see that our
conference is probably even more timely and topical
than previously thought.
My Lords,
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Ladies and gentlemen,
Some of you have already been participating in the
four roundtables this afternoon. I am sure that your
discussions have opened up new opportunities and
flagged up new ideas. We will hear in the course of
our
dinner
the
recommendations
from
the
rapporteurs and engage in a general discussion
afterwards.
I
would
like
now
to
put
today’s
debate
in
perspective. Those of you who listened earlier today
to Nick Harvey, Minister of State for the Armed
Forces, may feel that they have already heard what I
am going to tell you. If that is the case, it will only
make clear how convergent British and French
views are. If we honestly ask ourselves if, only one
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year ago, we could have imagined the breakthrough
in our cooperation with the signing of our two
defence treaties on 2nd November last year, I
suppose that very few of us could say yes without
hesitation.
Of course, we did have a very solid political
foundation following President Sarkozy’s state visit
in the spring of 2008 and the subsequent AngloFrench summits. The French presidency of the EU in
the second half of 2008 and the financial crisis have
created
new
opportunities
for
a
strengthened
partnership between our two countries. As you
know, the close personal relationship established by
President Sarkozy with Prime Minister Brown has
continued with David Cameron following last year’s
general election.
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Whoever is in charge in Paris and in London, our
two countries share a number of features: their size,
their population, their capabilities and defence
budgets, and their international responsibilities as
permanent members of the United Nations Security
Council, as nuclear states and as allies within NATO.
All these features make them natural partners in
security and defence. In Europe, the United Kingdom
and France together form a critical mass, with 45%
of
European
spending
on
defence,
50%
of
expeditionary forces deployed and 70% of R&D.
Beyond those permanent features, our two countries
share similar experience in conducting defence and
security reviews. Soon after being elected in May
2007, President Sarkozy decided to launch a
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strategic defence and security review (what we call a
“livre blanc”). The United Kingdom conducted her
own SDSR in 2010 after David Cameron’s election.
Both reviews were conducted on a sovereign basis
but, as Nick Harvey pointed out earlier, it is quite
striking to note that they reached the following,
broadly similar conclusions:
 Firstly, the world has become more dangerous
and less predictable. We have to tackle pressing
threats, in particular from terrorism, proliferation
and cyberwarfare.
 Secondly, Britain and France want to remain
global military powers. This means that they are
nations with fighting forces and with the
political will to use them if necessary, which is
paramount.
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 And
thirdly,
both
countries
attach
great
importance to national resilience and stress the
necessity of being able to face a wide spectrum
of threats. You will recall that during the AngloFrench summit in November, President Sarkozy
stated that he could not imagine a threat to the
UK which would have no effect on France and
vice versa.
A strong political partnership based on a shared
vision of our international responsibilities, common
interests and comparable capabilities have led our
leaders to take an unprecedented step forward in
our bilateral cooperation: by signing two treaties on
defence and nuclear simulation, Prime Minister
Cameron and President Sarkozy have set the
framework for enhanced co-operation and paved the
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way for rationalising our resources at a time of fiscal
consolidation in both countries.
The benefits of our cooperation are manifold. It is of
course seen as mutually beneficial on a bilateral
basis: “the whole is greater than the sum of the
parts.” Bilateral cooperation can be seen as a force
multiplier, leverage we can use to optimise our
capabilities. However, again as Nick Harvey said, its
benefits go beyond our bilateral relationship. The
United Kingdom and France’s long-term partnership
in defence and security will also support our actions
in the framework of the UN, NATO and the EU’s
Common Security and Defence Policy, bearing in
mind the complementarity between NATO and the
European Union in all relevant areas. In this respect,
you will recall that the Anglo-French treaties were
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welcomed by the US as well as by some European
nations like Germany or Italy, who said they would
like to be part of the agreements that we have
reached. I am happy to note that representatives of
some European partners and of the US are with us
tonight.
My Lords,
Ladies and gentlemen,
If we consider current events, particularly in the
Middle East and in North Africa, we are confronted
with what was described in our “Livre blanc” as “the
arc of crisis”.
Since the very beginning of the
Libyan crisis, the United Kingdom and France have
been working together, alongside the United States.
This joint leadership was instrumental in the
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discussions leading to the ground-breaking UNSCR
1973 and was highly visible during the recent Paris
and London conferences on Libya. And again, it has
confirmed this great convergence of views between
our two countries regarding our security interests.
Without that convergence, moreover, the signature
of the treaties would not have been possible.
I would like to conclude by focusing on industry,
where the stakes are also very high. In a constrained
financial
environment,
we
must
preserve
our
capability to access technologies critical to our
defence and sustain our industrial base. The
November treaty clearly mentions this as a goal we
should reach. Greater interdependence is the way
forward wherever possible. The prime test case will
be in the Complex Weapons sector (i.e. missiles)
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around the "One MBDA" initiative, a rationalisation
of our common industrial base and the initialisation
of four new programs. Several other strategic
projects, with a potentially formative effect for our
industries, were launched in UAVs, the Fixed Wing
Sector, Mine Warfare and submarines. I will not list
them all but they are only the “low hanging fruit” .
More generally, we need to make our cooperation
more systematic. We are working on greater
interoperability, maximising our capabilities and
efficiencies to achieve economy of scale where we
can. An incremental approach which allows us to
have complete sovereign control of our forces and
remain independent when we choose to do so, but a
force multiplier if we decide to go together.
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At the end of his keynote speech, Nick Harvey
quoted Saint-Exupéry about friendship which is not
“about looking at one another but looking in the
same direction.” How very true! My quotation does
not have the same literary value but I like it : after
the last Anglo-French summit, the Times published a
letter by one reader, who wrote: “The problem
between the British and the French is that both
nations consider themselves to be superior to the
other, while harbouring a sneaking suspicion that
the opposite might be true.” After listening to me, I
hope you will agree that the answer to that is that
France and the United Kingdom are stronger
together and when they look in the same direction.
Thank you
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