Former UK Ambassador to the US Kim Darroch Speaks to T&G on Aukus and More

Former National Security Adviser and former UK Ambassador to the US, Lord Darroch, has told Times Radio it's vital to rebuild the UK's relationship with France.

Speaking to Tom Newton Dunn and Daisy McAndrew on T&G on Sunday he said:

This is a job for diplomats and for senior ministers including the new Foreign Secretary. It is important that we have a continuing strong relationship with France. We have bilateral problems we need to manage with them, not least the matter of migrant boats coming across the Channel.

We have important defence interests with them and we are working together in a number of dangerous places around the world. So you will hope and expect that the Defence Secretary with his counterpart and the new Foreign Secretary with her counterpart and indeed the Prime Minister and Macron who seem to have quite a good relationship. We will be working to restore the balance in the relationship. It's going to take time for the dust to settle.

Try and smooth it over and try to find new ways to cooperate while emphasising publicly that we're not about taking away promises of defence contracts around the world. After all the Australians approached us, we didn't come in there and say; "Come on, move away from this contract towards us". They approached us about it. But we need to find as many productive things that we can do with the French as we can.

And on the prospect of France eventually joining Aukus:

In the longer run, it would be a very good thing if you could have France there because it has several bases in the region, and it's had a long term presence there. I'm all for France as one of the leading players on defence militarily, internationally to be working with us and with the United States as much as possible, so I hope that we can get through this.

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