Macron and Johnson to meet at G20: Downing Street

Boris Johnson - AFP
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) poses after purchasing a poppy from a fundraiser for the Royal British Legion in front of the Number 10 door in Downing Street in London on October 29, 2021. (Photo: Agence France-Presse )
London — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold brief face-to-face talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at the G20, Downing Street said Friday, with the two nations locked in a fishing rights dispute.اضافة اعلان

The leaders will meet at the summit starting in Rome on Saturday. An escalating row over rights for French fishing boats has seen Britain summon the French ambassador.

Johnson and Macron will hold a brief "brush-by" meeting on the summit's sidelines to "discuss a range of issues," a spokesman for the British prime minister told journalists, without confirming the time and date.

The two sides are at loggerheads over licensing rules for EU boats operating in waters around Britain and the Channel Islands.

France has been incensed by the rejection of some of its vessels by Britain and the self-governing islands of Jersey and Guernsey, which depend on London for defense and foreign affairs.

France has warned that continued denial of licenses would lead to retaliatory measures as soon as next week, including time-consuming checks on all products and a ban on UK vessels landing seafood.

London has promised "an appropriate and calibrated response" to the French measures since the British fishing industry depends on French ports as a gateway to Europe, its main export market.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has summoned the French Ambassador to London, Catherine Colonna, to a meeting Friday afternoon to explain France's "threats." 
  

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