Ten years ago, on 2 November 2010, France and the United Kingdom signed the Lancaster House Treaties. The Treaties were designed to establish a unique bilateral, long-term partnership between the two nations on defence and security matters. They represented an unprecedented ambition and created mutual dependency in the industrial field and with the TEUTATES Treaty went as far as establishing cooperation on nuclear issues—ones that lie at the very heart of state independence.

The Lancaster House Treaties marked a far-reaching development in Franco-British defence relations and were effectively a continuation of the Treaty of Dunkirk, which in the aftermath of the Second World War affirmed the will of our two countries to intensify their cooperation through the signature of a mutual assistance treaty. These treaties represent a fundamental element in the historical cooperation between France and the United Kingdom, stretching from the 1904 Entente cordiale to the 1998 Saint-Malo declaration. They are clear confirmation of mutual confidence, and bear witness to the closeness of the links that unite the two nations.

Above all these Treaties reflect shared global vision and an age-old strategic similarity.