Rishi Sunak arrived at the Elysée palace in a Range Rover with a British flag flying. Emmanuel Macron greeted him warmly with several rounds of handshakes and back-patting before they went into their first lengthy working meeting.

The two leaders — both former investment bankers, sons of doctors, and of similar age — have billed this first meeting as a chance to deepen their working relationship and personally “reset” and repair the troubled cross-Channel relationship.

Franco-British relations had in recent years plummeted to their worst state in decades, dominated by bitter rows over submarine contracts, post-Brexit fishing rights and who was to blame for the catastrophic deaths of people trying to reach the UK coast on small boats.

Sunak’s main message, as stressed in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro this morning, was that Macron is a “great friend” and France is an ally and close partner. Sunak said he wanted to write “a new chapter in the relationship”, that he personally had very warm feelings for France, having worked with French bosses in the banking sector. France was his favourite holiday destination, he said.

High on the agenda for this morning’s discussions is joint support for Ukraine and further defence cooperation between the UK and France, with an announcement expected this afternoon on closer British and French support for Ukraine.

The issue of migration and small boats crossing the Channel is a high priority for the UK. But the talks in Paris will focus on one specific area: reinforcing the existing close cooperation between France and the UK in securing and policing the northern French coast to prevent small boats from crossing.

Friday’s summit will not discuss any issue of returning migrants to France. This is an EU matter and must be handled at EU-level by Sunak, in UK-EU talks, not on a bilateral basis with France.