Rishi Sunak is now speaking, and says that while relationship between two countries has has its challenges, today marks "a new beginning".

He discussed an ambitious future, adding that the two leaders focused on three issues today: migration, energy and security.

As part of bringing the two countries' cooperation to unprecedented level, he announces a new detention centre, as well as 500 new officers patrolling French beaches.

Sunak says there will be more drones and other surveillance technologies, and legislation introduced in the UK this week "supports this".

Image source, EPA

Concluding his address in French, Macron says the two countries have met with British and French business and young talent, who he says will be key players in the future.

Macron says the 36th summit is one like no other, it is one of renewed ambition and concrete achievements.

He finishes by thanking Rishi Sunak for being in Paris today - the PM responds by applauding Macron.

Macron turns to the issue of illegal migration next.

He says he wishes to "make progress in lockstep" with the UK. He states that he is aware of the human issues and the "extreme sensitivity" of the issues.

He speaks of the 30,000 small boat crossings that he says were prevented last year, as well as the organised crimes networks that were dismantled, thanks to the work of France and the UK.

He says the two nations have decided on heightening coordination of their activities, and "must act together in a fully shared framework".

Macron says he and Sunak have decided on concrete action together on Ukraine.

He says: "Russia cannot and must not win this war".

He goes on to say that the UK and France share "the same resolve" and want to build a lasting and acceptable peace.

Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Details of the new measures to tackle Channel crossings are now coming through from the UK side.The UK is to help fund:

• A new detention centre in France so people can be “removed from the French coast”
• Deployment of ‘hundreds of extra French law enforcement officers’ with a “new, highly trained, permanent French mobile policing unit dedicated to tackling small boats”
• Enhanced technology to patrol beaches, meaning drones, aircraft, surveillance technology

And the payments from the UK will be:

• 141 million euros in 2023-24
• 191 million euros in 2024-25
• 209 million euros in 2025-26

Emmanuel Macron has started speaking, and he begins by welcoming "dear" Rishi Sunak and his ministers to Paris.

He hails the "excellent discussions" held today and lists how the world has changed in the five years since the last UK-France summit.

"We have a history that binds us," he says, joking about the two nations being sporting rivals, as well as "a geography that binds us".

Today's summit is "exceptional", Macron says, stating that Europe is faced with a new responsibility.

The UK will - for the first time - help fund a detention centre in France in an effort to cope with the numbers of people being trafficked across the Channel, Downing Street says.

It's pledged to commit £479 (€541m) over the next three years towards an overall joint plan, adding that "the French will contribute significantly more funding".

We'll bring you more details as the press conference between the British and French leaders unfolds.

French President Emmanuel Macron is speaking at the press conference in Paris with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Stay with us as we bring you live updates - and watch along at the top of this page.

Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent

Image source, Reuters

When it comes to a meeting like this, there’s the optics and the substance. Both matter.

And we’ll be watching both closely. We’ve already seen lots of what some want to call the budding bromance.

Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron sharing exaggerated handshakes, holding firm, then standing, arms around each other’s backs, smiling outside the Elysee Palace.

That’s deliberate and done for the cameras. The message, “we’re close again.” And we know some of the substance they’ll agree.

There will be money from the UK to pay for France to stop small boats crossing the Channel, co-ordination on weapons and training for Ukraine, co-operation developing new missiles that can defend Europe, rotating deployments of UK and French aircraft carriers in the Indo-Pacific to project power there.

Is there more to come today?

The lecterns are in place and we are expecting Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron to speak shortly.

You'll be able to watch the leaders' press conference live by clicking the Play button at the top of the page.

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier this week Sunak unveiled his plans to deter people from making the crossing.

Under the plans – which have been widely criticised by human rights groups - anyone found to have entered the country illegally would not only be removed from the UK within 28 days, but also be blocked from returning or claiming British citizenship in future.

Those arriving on UK beaches would either be returned to their home country, or another "safe third country" like Rwanda.

Downing Street's desire "to make the small boat route across the Channel unviable" is a bold ambition.

More than 45,000 people entered the UK via Channel crossings last year, up from about 300 in 2018.

So far this year, around 3,000 people have arrived on small boats, but the two governments claim their joint work has stopped a similar number from embarking on the journey.

An announcement on deepening co-operation on the issue is expected today, rather than a big breakthrough.

Katya Adler
Europe editor

After seven years of pretty appalling Franco-British relations following the UK's Brexit vote, and with conventional warfare back and raging in Europe as Russia continues its bloody assault on Ukraine, there is a voracious appetite on both sides of the Channel for new beginnings and constructive co-operation.

And there are remarkable similarities between the French and British leaders.

Former investment bankers and finance ministers, who attended elite schools, they are both ideologically from the centre-right. They were young when they took the reins of power. Rather diminutive in stature, the two men are hugely ambitious.

But there are other similarities the two men probably prefer not to boast about.

Neither of them has a convincing popular mandate. Sunak became prime minister after his predecessor's resignation. Macron's Renaissance party runs a minority government after punishing parliamentary elections.

The two leaders are also beset by public sector strikes: over pay in the UK and pensions in France. Critics accuse them of arrogance at times and of seeming distant from the concerns of most voters.

• Read more from Katya Adler here.

Jeremy Gahagan and James FitzGerald
Live reporters

Image source, PA Media

The first Anglo-French summit in five years is happening in Paris - meaning that we expect political pundits to be glued to the press conference that'll soon be delivered by Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron.

The two leaders are said to have exchanged warm words in an hour-long one-to-one meeting today. Will that translate into public displays of mutual admiration between the pair?

As we've been reporting, there are plenty of issues at stake in the partnership. A couple of these have dominated headlines recently - including the small boats crisis, and post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland.

Stay with us as we bring you details from the press conference at around 14:00 GMT.

You'll also be able to stream the leaders' remarks live by clicking the Play button at the top of the page.

As Sunak and Macron meet in Paris, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has argued that without a returns agreement for failed asylum seekers, the talks between the UK and France will "make a bad situation worse".

"We'll have people who can't go through the system, can't be returned, and they will therefore end up in hotels and other accommodation at the taxpayers' expense," he said.

He also claimed the asylum situation was "broken" with only 1% of those arriving on boats having their applications processed.

Image source, No 10 Downing Street/Flickr

Sunak and Macron have spoken for an hour today, and the PA news agency understands that they changed their plans so they could speak for longer in private.

The two men had a "warm and productive meeting", Downing Street says - and they exchanged signed rugby shirts ahead of tomorrow's Six Nations clash between England and France at Twickenham.

The leaders agreed on the need for "further collaboration" on issues including defence, energy security, and illegal migration.

Hugh Schofield
reporting from Paris

Image source, Reuters

It has been said before, but the similarity between the two men was what struck the eye when they met on the steps of the Elysee.

Similar physiques, similar suits, similar ages, similar pasts, similar back-slaps and smiles: it could have been two high-fliers greeting each other on the way to a power-lunch.

Which, actually, was more or less what it was.

Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron are both young, ex-banker, can-do types.

They’ve set themselves a joint mission of re-setting the entente cordiale and getting Franco-British relations back to where they were before the disaster of the Johnson-Truss era.

Who’s to say they won’t succeed?

After all, things had sunk so low that any correction could only be in an upward direction.

Both leaders know that when two countries are so close historically and geographically, there are only two choices: friends or enemies.

There’s no half-way house.

Image source, Getty Images

A bit more on those tensions our political editor Chris just mentioned.

Back during last summer's edition of the Conservative Party leadership contest Liz Truss declined to say whether Emmanuel Macron was a friend or foe of Britain, saying the "jury was still out".

Truss went on to win the leadership race and the pair ended up meeting in Prague in October at a summit of world leaders.

There, she described Macron as a “friend”, while he spoke of building a "common strategy" on Russia's war in Ukraine.

They released a joint statement promising an "ambitious" package of measures aimed at "ending" small boat crossings on the Channel.

The two leaders also announced plans to hold a UK-France summit in 2023 in France and that’s where we are today with Rishi Sunak in place of Truss after she quit in the autumn.

No one silver bullet in resolving small boats issue - Sunakpublished at 13:16 Greenwich Mean Time 10 March 2023

13:16 GMT 10 March 2023

Chris Mason
Political editor, travelling with the prime minister

Image source, Reuters

Downing Street feels it has reset relations with Paris; after Liz Truss publicly questioned last summer whether President Macron was a friend or foe.

There is also the new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland with the European Union.

But, there will not be an agreement with France to return migrants who attempt a Channel crossing.

Instead there is a focus on trying to cut the number setting off in small boats.

However, the prime minister repeatedly acknowledged to us on the way here that there was “no one silver bullet” for resolving the issue: an issue, remember, he has promised to resolve.

Image source, PA Media

Earlier today, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly confirmed more money would be given to France to fund extra police patrols to stop people getting on small boats across the Channel.

Speaking from Paris, Cleverly told BBC Breakfast: "It will cost money, it has cost money and of course we will be negotiating how we fund that joint work."

When pressed on how much the UK would be offering the French, he said: "I'm not going to speculate as to the outcomes of the negotiation but we have been spending money doing this, it's right and proper that we do and of course we will be spending money in the future."