It's about fishing grounds - and in the dispute over licenses for French fishing vessels in the English Channel, Great Britain is now also relying on provocation.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is sending two patrol boats to Jersey Channel Island to monitor the situation, a government spokesman said on Wednesday evening.
It is a precautionary measure to prevent the island from being blocked.
Jersey is not part of the United Kingdom as a crown possession, but London is responsible for foreign and defense policy.
In a telephone conversation with Jersey's head of administration John Le Fondre and Senator Ian Gorst, who is responsible for foreign affairs, Johnson stressed his "unbroken support."
At the same time, he pointed out the need to de-escalate the situation, said the spokesman.
Fondre warned that French fishermen could block the island's main port.
According to the Guardian, the ships sent are the HMS Severn and the HMS Tamar.
The former was dispatched on Wednesday.
The »Tamar«, the larger of the two boats with a length of more than 90 meters, is to follow on Thursday.
Out of anger over the allegedly slow granting of fishing licenses to French fishermen on the Channel Island, the French Minister of the Sea, Annick Girardin, threatened retaliatory measures and mentioned jersey's power supply via an undersea cable.
Jersey receives 95 percent of its electricity from three subsea cables from France, just 25 kilometers away.
The minister in Paris made it clear
In front of the House of Commons, the minister had recently commented on a possible shutdown of the power supply: "I would be very sorry if we had to go that far."
But, Girardin went on, "we'll do that if we have to."
The British government had recently acted "repugnant".
The reaction from London was also sharp.
France is behaving "unacceptably and inappropriately" with its threats.
After the British left the EU, there was a dispute over total catches and their distribution.
At times, negotiations on a Brexit trade pact threatened to fail due to the fish issue.
French fishermen have long been angry about access to British waters after Brexit.
In the past British and French fishermen have clashed in the English Channel.
Always anger about fishing grounds
Last Friday, 41 French fishing boats were licensed to sail in waters around the Channel Island.
However, according to the French side, these licenses are associated with restrictions that have not been agreed beforehand.
Among other things, it concerns the number of days French boats are allowed to fish in Jersey waters.
In some cases, these have been reduced from around 40 to barely more than ten, a politician complained to the House of Commons.
According to Minister Girardin, such requirements are "completely unacceptable"
jok / dpa
