French and British troops yesterday swapped roles to take part in the changing of the guard ceremonies outside the palaces of the other’s head of state, in an unprecedented move to celebrate 120 years since the Entente Cordiale.
Signed in 1904, the Entente Cordiale cemented an improvement in relations after the Napoleonic Wars and is seen as the foundation of the two NATO members’ alliance to this day.
The ceremonies saw British guards in a historic first take part in the changing of the guard outside the Elysee Palace of French President Emmanuel Macron and his French guards then do the same outside Buckingham Palace in London, the residence of King Charles III.
Photo: AP
At the Elysee Palace, 16 members of the No. 7 Company Coldstream Guards of the UK embassy, wearing their traditional bearskin hats, relieved their French counterparts from the first infantry regiment from 10:30am.
The French army choir then sang the two national anthems — God Save the King and La Marseillaise.
“This is the first time in the history of the Elysee that foreign troops have been invited to participate in this military ritual,” a French presidential official said.
Macron at the end of last year made the changing of the Republican Guard public again, on the first Tuesday of each month. However, the ceremony is much less spectacular than its counterpart outside the royal palace in London.
Two sections of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiment of France’s Republican Guard participated in the changing of the guard ceremony in front of Buckingham Palace, alongside guards from F Company Scots Guards and other British forces, the French presidential official said.
In London the ceremony was watched by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh — Prince Edward and his wife Sophie — accompanied by British chief of the general staff, General Patrick Sanders, and French chief of the army staff Pierre Schill.
The event on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace marked the first time a nation from outside the Commonwealth — which mostly includes English-speaking former British colonies and possessions — had taken part in the changing of the guard ceremony.
The signing of the Entente Cordiale on April 8, 1904, is widely seen as preparing the way for France and Britain to join forces against Germany in World War I.
While the Entente Cordiale is often used as shorthand to describe the Franco-British relationship, ties have been bedevilled by tensions, particularly after Brexit.
Migration has been a particular sticking point, with London pressuring Paris to halt the flow of migrants across the English Channel, but a state visit by King Charles last year — one of his last big foreign engagements before his cancer diagnosis — was widely seen as a resounding success that showed the fundamental strength of the relationship.
“This anniversary is therefore an opportunity to promote the historic military, diplomatic, economic and cultural ties that unite France and the United Kingdom and to reaffirm our common values,” the French presidential official said.
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