King Charles has told French parliamentarians that Britain and France have a shared responsibility to protect democracy in Europe, ensure the triumph of Ukraine and tackle the “existential challenge” of the climate crisis.
In a speech to lawmakers in the upper house of the French parliament on Thursday, the king spoke of Russia’s “unjustified aggression” in invading Ukraine 18 months ago and said France and the UK must stand together in the face of these “horrifying events”, adding: “Together we are unwavering in our determination that Ukraine will triumph.”
He also proposed a new “entente for sustainability”, saying France and the UK should strive together to protect the world from the climate crisis. “Just as we stand together against military aggression, so must we strive together to protect the world from our most existential challenge of all: that of global warming, climate change and the catastrophic destruction of nature,” he said.
“Together, our potential is limitless,” Charles told the senate in French, in what was the first speech by a British monarch in a French parliament chamber.
“That’s why we must cherish and take care of our entente cordiale. For future generations, so it becomes an entente for sustainability to tackle more efficiently the global urgency in terms of climate and diversity,” he said. French senators and MPs gave the king a long standing ovation.
After the speech Charles visited the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, home to the Stade de France, which is being used for the Rugby World Cup and next year’s Olympics. He met residents and young athletes and visited its medieval basilica.
The king was presented with a shirt from the French football team Paris Saint-Germain bearing his name and the number three. He also rejoined Queen Camilla and Brigitte Macron, who briefly played table tennis while visiting a sports centre. On the Ile de la Cité on the River Seine, Charles – a keen gardener – toured a flower market named after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Accompanied by Macron and his wife, the king and queen were given a presentation on the renovation of Notre Dame after the catastrophic fire that partially destroyed it in April 2019. Nearly 1,000 people are working to restore the cathedral, which dates back to the 12th century.
The royal couple could not enter the building for safety reasons, but spoke to workers, dozens of whom on the higher floors of the monument applauded and took pictures. Charles had written in an emotional message to Macron after the fire that he was “utterly heartbroken”, calling Notre Dame “one of the greatest architectural achievements of western civilisation”.
Camilla and Brigitte Macron launched a new Franco-British literary prize, which will be awarded from 2024. The king was later to attend a climate and biodiversity financing conference before a formal farewell from Macron at the Elysée Palace.
Friday, the final day of the visit, will be spent in Bordeaux, where Charles and Camilla will tour an organic vineyard and meet emergency workers and communities affected by the 2022 wildfires.
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The so-called entente cordiale was an alliance dating from 1904 that put a stop to centuries of military rivalries between France and Britain to allow the two European powers to fight on the same side during two world wars.
The king used his speech to once again urge stronger ties between France and Britain. At a lavish banquet at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday night, he had said in a toast that it was “incumbent upon us all to reinvigorate our friendship to ensure it is fit for the challenge of this, the 21st century”.
The king’s three-day visit to France is seen as the “soft power” follow-up to Rishi Sunak’s drive to repair the badly damaged Paris-London relationship at a crucial Franco-British summit in March, which addressed issues such as the crisis of people risking their lives to cross the Channel in small boats.
It confirms a crucial reset of the British-French relationship after the near-total collapse in trust and the record levels of ill-feeling and resentment of the Boris Johnson years.
The king’s senate speech echoed that of his mother, when she visited the senate in 2004 and said, speaking in the conference hall rather than the voting chamber: “In a dangerous world our two nations have so much to offer when we use our strengths together … Let us move on from our recent differences as our forebears did a hundred years ago.”