This week saw the first state visit by a European head of state to the UK since Brexit.

That sentence in itself speaks volumes, both about how damaging the vote to leave the EU was to the UK's relationship with its closest neighbours - but also showing concrete evidence that the frost is very much beginning to thaw.

Emmanuel Macron and Sir Keir Starmer have, it's reported, met multiple times since the PM came to power just over a year ago. 'Closer ties' and a 'relationship reset' are phrases much-used since then, regarding Britain's relationship with EU member states. 

But while defence, a youth experience scheme and waiting times for UK passport holders have all filled hundreds of column inches, there are few things which anyone wanting much closer ties between the UK and EU can actually put their finger on and say, unequivocally, 'that's progress.'

But, perhaps, this week's state visit has finally changed that. 

On July 10th the Government announced 'Lancaster House 2.0': a declaration on modernising UK-French defence and security cooperation. It has no doubt received far less press attention that it deserves - most of the headlines have been about the '1-in-1-out' trial for dealing with the small-boat crisis. But it is real change, and the concrete cooperation so many are looking for that signals the new openness from the UK to the EU, after years of sulking in the corner.

The declaration says, 'The UK and France are willing and able to act together, decisively, to protect our shared interests, allies, partners in Europe and beyond, values and, fundamentally, our democratic way of life.'

That sentence feels like one we've been waiting for: friends again.

The declaration is wide-ranging, but among other things, it will see the creation of a Combined Joint Force, overhauling the current Combined Joint Expeditionary Force and seriously increasing its capacity ('up to fivefold'). It also says it will establish a 'mechanism to share, coordinate and synchronise military activity and the deployment of UK and French forces globally.' 

That suggests that such a mechanism does not yet exist - and creating one allies the UK to France, and the wider EU, in ways that are difficult to predict - but at the very least, it is the opposite of Brexit on a fundamental level: a recognition that we are stronger together, not apart.

Amongst the formal dinners ('a mixture of French and English cuisine'), royal audiences and accompanying pomp, there was a lot more on display here than the headlines suggest.

With Labour's red-lines on the single market and customs union, the 'relationship reset' between the UK and the EU has had little but warm words to be celebrated for the past twelve months. 

But, perhaps now, we can finally start to say, 'that's progress.'