Cameron: Britain ‘Will Do All in Our Power’ to Support France to Defeat ISIS

“It’s good to be back in Paris. City whose people have shown such courage, determination and resilience, a city where millions came out on Friday night to live their lives and to send a very clear message to the terrorists, that you will never win, you will never beat us. Just it over, one week on from the terrorist attacks, our thoughts are with all those who lost loved ones and with the injured who are still recovering. I want to praise the swift and decisive action taken by the French authorities in response and to prevent further attacks in Paris. And in particular to pay tribute to the bravery of French police officers. It is absolutely right to take decisive action to stop terrorists when they are threatening the lives of innocent citizens. 

The United Kingdom will do all in our power to support our friend and ally France to defeat this evil death cult. Today François and I, President Hollande and I have discussed how we can further strengthen the counter-terrorism strategy between our two countries and work together to defeat ISIL in Iraq and Syria. Let me say a word about each. First, counter-terrorism. We face a shared threat and we must share information and intelligence to better protect ourselves from these brutal terrorists. The U.K. and France are already doing this, but today we have agreed to step up our efforts even further and to work more closely with our European neighbors. In particular, we must do more to tackle the threat of returning foreign fighters. This requires a Pan-European effort. 

We need a stronger, external E.U. border to protect our security more effectively with screening, systematic security checks and greater sharing of data amongst member states. We must without further delay, finally agree the rules that will enable us to share passenger name records. It is frankly ridiculous we can get more information from countries outside the E.U. than we can from each other and we must do more to crackdown on the trade of illegal firearms to stop them getting into the hands of terrorists who are determined to wreak such misery with them. I welcome the strong backing of the E.U. justice and home affairs council for all these measures, but now we’ve got to turn those words into actions. We simply cannot afford to wait any longer. While we do more to protect ourselves here in Europe, we must do for more to defeat ISIL in their heartlands in Syria and Iraq. 

The U.K. is already playing its parts, as a member of the counter-ISIL coalition, striking targets in Iraq, providing intelligence over the skies of Syria and helping our allies with vital air to air refueling. On Friday, the United Nations unanimously backed action against ISIL in Syria and Iraq. And later this week, I will set out in Parliament our comprehensive strategy for tackling ISIL. I firmly support the action that President Hollande has taken to strike ISIL in Syria, and it’s my firm conviction that Britain should do so too. Of course, that will be a decision for Parliament to make. Today, I’ve offered President Hollande the use of a RAF Akrotiri for French aircraft or French aircraft engaged in counter-ISIL operations, and additional assistance with air to air refueling. 

We also discussed ongoing efforts to secure a political solution to the conflict in Syria. We welcome the recent talks in Vienna and we’ll do all we can to sustain this momentum and to bring all parties to the table, so they can agree on a way forward that ends the bloodshed and puts Syria on the path to a more democratic, inclusive and stable future. These have been important talks this morning. Later this week President Hollande will hold discussions with President Obama, President Putin and Chancellor Merkel. It is clear that the world is coming together to tackle this evil terrorist threat. That was clear on Friday night, when almost one week after the brutal terrorists murdered people in Paris and sought to divide us, the world united in New York. We’ve shown our firm resolve and together, we will destroy this evil threat. Thank you.”