UK royals welcome Macron for state visit with migration and Ukraine high on the agenda

France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, left, are greeted by Britain’s Prince William, right, and Kate, Princess of Wales at RAF Northolt, west of London, yesterday

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Britain yesterday for a state visit mixing royal pageantry with thorny political talks about stopping migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.

Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also try to advance plans for a post-ceasefire security force for Ukraine, despite apparent U.S. indifference to the idea and Russia’s refusal to halt the onslaught on its neighbor.

Macron’s three-day visit, at the invitation of King Charles III, is the first state visit to the U.K. by a European Union head of state since Brexit, and a symbol of the British government’s desire to reset relations with the bloc that the U.K. acrimoniously left in 2020.

Macron said the visit was an “important moment for our two nations.”

“The United Kingdom is a strategic partner, an ally, a friend,” Macron wrote on X, in a marked change of tone from the years of wrangling over Brexit. “Our bond is longstanding, forged by history and strengthened by trust.”

The president and his wife, Brigitte Macron, were greeted on a red carpet laid over the tarmac at London’s RAF Northolt air base by Prince William and his wife Catherine, who was wearing a dress by French design house Christian Dior.

They were met in Windsor, west of London, by King Charles and Queen Camilla. A military band played the French and British national anthems as all four set out for the royal residence of Windsor Castle in horse-drawn carriages, through streets bedecked in Union Jacks and French tricolor flags.

Later the king and queen will host a state banquet for their guests. The British royals made a state visit to France in September 2023.

The monarch is expected to steer clear of politics, but Charles will make a broad appeal to international cooperation at the banquet, saying that Britain and France “face a multitude of complex threats” that “know no borders” – and that “no fortress can protect us against them.”

Macron also will address both houses of Britain’s Parliament in the building’s fabulously ornate Royal Gallery before sitting down for talks with Starmer on migration, defense and investment.

‘New tactics to stop boats’

At a U.K.-France summit on Thursday, senior government officials from the two countries will discuss small-boat crossings, a thorny issue for successive governments on both sides of the English Channel.

Britain receives fewer asylum-seekers than Mediterranean European countries, but thousands of migrants each year use northern France as a launching point to reach the U.K., either by stowing away in trucks or — after a clampdown on that route — in small boats across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

The U.K. has struck a series of deals with France over the years to increase patrols of beaches and share intelligence in an attempt to disrupt the smuggling gangs.

It has all had only a limited impact. About 37,000 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats in 2024, the second-highest annual figure after 46,000 in 2022. More than 20,000 people made the crossing in the first six months of 2025, up by about 50% from the same period last year. Dozens of people have died attempting the crossing. JILL LAWLESS, LONDON, MDT/AP