Macron in London to mark de Gaulle’s WWII resistance call and discuss post-Brexit deal with Johnson

French President Emmanuel Macron visited London on Thursday to mark the 80th anniversary of General de Gaulle’s call for wartime resistance, and discuss post-Brexit agreements and the coronavirus pandemic with UK PM Boris Johnson.

It’s Macron’s first trip outside France and one of the most high-profile visits by a foreign leader since countries across the globe imposed lockdowns to curb the coronavirus, Reuters said.

The main focus for the French leader was to mark de Gaulle’s ‘Appel’ of June 18, 1940. The radio address he made to the French nation from the BBC headquarters in London called for resistance to the Nazi occupation of France during World War Two.

Macron and Johnson are to hold face-to-face talks on responses to the pandemic, including Britain’s 14-day quarantine of travelers from abroad. The negotiations to agree on a new free-trade deal post-Brexit between the UK and the EU by the end of the year, when a status-quo transition arrangement ends, have so far made little progress.