Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged “turbulence” in the UK’s relationship with France as the row over fishing rights escalates, according to the bbc.
After dozens of French boats were denied post-Brexit fishing licences for UK and Jersey waters, France threatened to block ports to British vessels.
But Mr Johnson told the BBC the things that united the UK and France were more important than their divisions.
The French president said the row was a test of the UK’s global credibility.
France has said it will take “targeted measures” against the UK if the row over fishing licences is not resolved by Tuesday.
A Downing Street spokesman said the government was prepared to continue working with France to issue more licences, but if France proceeded with its threats the UK would “act in a calibrated manner”.
Pressed on how the UK would respond to the threats as the G20 group of major economies met, the prime minister told the BBC: “We’re going to get on and do the things that matter to both of us and make sure that we work together on tackling the big issues that face the world.”
He said that “there’s some turbulence in the relationship”, referring to a letter seen by the BBC in which the French Prime Minister Jean Castex said the EU must demonstrate in this dispute that there was “more damage to leaving the EU than remaining there”.
On Friday, Environment Secretary George Eustice said the UK could retaliate over the French threats, however, saying “two can play at that game”.
Jean-Marc Puissesseau, president and chairman of the ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the dispute concerned only about 40 boats, “a drop of water in an ocean”.
