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- Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron shared a mock-combative fist bump at the leaders' group photo on Saturday, but did not appear to speak.
- Johnson warned that France may be violating the terms of the post-Brexit trade deal.
- France has accused the UK of wrongly denying licenses to its boats, while Britain insists it is fairly upholding the rules of their post-Brexit settlement.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that France may already be violating the terms of the post-Brexit trade deal and hinted at retaliation if Paris refuses to back down in a dispute over fishing rights.
"We are a bit worried that France may be about to become in breach, or is already in breach,” Johnson said to broadcasters at the Colisseum in Rome, saying he would take all actions necessary to defend UK interests.
"If one of our partners decides to breach the Trade and Cooperation Agreement we struck, then obviously that’s a matter we'll have to pursue."
The disagreement centers on access to British fishing waters. France has accused the UK of wrongly denying licenses to its boats, while Britain insists it is fairly upholding the rules of their post-Brexit settlement.
Johnson offered no indication of what the French have done that might constitute a breach of that accord. He's due to meet French President Emmanuel Macron on the margins of the Group of 20 summit in the Italian capital on Sunday. The two shared a mock-combative fist bump at the leaders’ group photo on Saturday, but they did not appear to speak.
Johnson’s official spokesman Max Blain later clarified the comments, saying France would only be in breach if it actually took retaliatory action.
"As he set out before, if enacted, we believe they would be in breach," Blain said to reporters on Saturday.
"Clearly they've set their own deadline for when they propose to proceed with the actions they've set out. It would be for them to decide whether or not they do so."
It's the second international summit this year where Johnson and Macron have been embroiled in a dispute over the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the European Union. At the G-7 that Johnson hosted in Cornwall in June, the British leader threatened to suspend U.K commitments to control goods shipped to northern Ireland while his then-foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, called the EU position "offensive."
Despite the accusation against France, Johnson also sought to look beyond the fishing question, saying that tackling climate change is a far bigger priority in his relationship with Macron and other world leaders.
"The things that unite France and the UK are far more important than the things that divide us," he said. "Emmanuel Macron and I share a common perspective which is that climate change is a disaster for humanity and that we have the tools to tackle it."
