Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron have agreed that countries on NATO's eastern flank must be "fully defended against malicious Russian activity".
That applies "wherever and however it might occur", the two leaders added.
Amid continuing concerns that Russia may invade Ukraine, the British prime minister and French president also "stressed that NATO must be united in the face of Russian aggression", Downing Street said.
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New signs of a Russian invasion?
In other developments, US troops have arrived at an airbase in southeastern Poland.
Mr Macron has also spoken to NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The French leader stressed the "need to continue efforts to find through dialogue a de-escalation path" that respects the "fundamental principles of European security, the sovereignty of the states and the resulting rights", his office said.
The building of a field hospital, the movement of additional troops to the border, and the deployment of the Russian military police suggest more invasion preparations are now in place.
Rescuers who are desperately trying to reach a five-year-old boy who fell into a deep well in Morocco are entering the final stages of their operation.
They worked through the night to reach the boy, named by local media as Rayan, who plunged 32m (104ft) through the well's narrow opening four days ago.
Rescuers said they were in an access tunnel less than a metre from the boy.
Fears of a possible landslide have complicated the task. A rescue official was unsure Rayan was still alive.
Chief rescuer Abdelhadi Tamrani told AFP that the camera showed him from behind lying on his side.
"It is not possible to determine the child's condition at all at this time. But we hope to God that the child is alive," he told local TV.
Footage on Thursday from a camera lowered into the well showed that the boy was alive and conscious, although he appeared to be suffering from some minor head injuries.
Rescue workers have lowered an oxygen mask, food and water into the well but it was unclear whether the boy had been able to use the supplies.
A medical team is also on site, ready to treat the boy. A helicopter has also arrived at the scene.
The rescue effort has gripped the North African country for days, and thousands have gathered at the scene and have been encouraging rescuers.
The mixture of rocky and sandy soils has meant rescuers deem opening the water well's narrow shaft to be too dangerous.
Instead, bulldozers were used to cut a huge trench next to the well. Rescuers then started digging horizontally to reach the boy.
"We're almost there," said one of the operation's leaders, Abdesalam Makoudi, on Friday afternoon. "We've been working non-stop for three days and tiredness is kicking in, but the whole rescue team is hanging on."
Led by Morocco's Civil Protection Directorate, rescue operations in the small northern town of Tamorot, around 100km (62 miles) from the city of Chefchaouen, have been ongoing since Tuesday evening.
Rayan's father was repairing the well at the time of the accident, and has said he and Rayan's mother were "devastated and very worried".
"In that one moment I took my eyes off him, the little one fell into the well. I haven't slept a wink", he told news site le360 on Wednesday.
Speaking to Moroccan media with tears in her eyes, Rayan's mother said: "The whole family went out to look for him. Then we realised that he'd fallen down the well. I'm still keeping up hope that we'll get him out alive."
On Moroccan social media, the #SaveRayan has been trending across the country as thousands of people have followed updates from local media and onlookers at the scene.
Mohamed Yassin El Quahabi, president of the Chefchaouen Association of Caving and Mountain Activities, has been helping with the rescue and he told the BBC that the narrowness of the well had hampered rescue efforts.
He added that several attempts by local volunteers and rescue workers to gain access through the well's opening have already failed.
"The problem of this rescue is that the hole diameter is very, very small, about 25cm (9.8 inches)," Mr El Quahabi said. "At the depth of 28 metres it became smaller so we couldn't reach him."
AFP
One of the rescue team explained: "The closer we get, the hole gets narrow and hard to pass through - which makes it very hard to save the child through volunteers. That's why we had to come up with another technique - which is digging.''
But authorities remain concerned that any interference with the well could accidentally hurt the five-year-old by triggering a landslide.
Rescuers who are desperately trying to reach a five-year-old boy who fell into a deep well in Morocco are entering the final stages of their operation.
They worked through the night to reach the boy, named by local media as Rayan, who plunged 32m (104ft) through the well's narrow opening four days ago.
The complex operation has gripped the North African country for days, and thousands have gathered at the scene.
Fears of a landslide have made the rescue operation more dangerous.
That risk combined with the mixture of rocky and sandy soils has meant rescuers deem opening the water well's narrow shaft to be too dangerous.
Instead, bulldozers have been used to cut a huge trench next to the well and authorities say they are "almost there".
Once the trench reaches the same depth as the well, rescuers can start digging horizontally to reach the boy.
"We're almost there," said one of the operation's leaders, Abdesalam Makoudi, on Friday afternoon. "We've been working non-stop for three days and tiredness is kicking in, but the whole rescue team is hanging on."
Led by Morocco's Civil Protection Directorate, rescue operations in the small northern town of Tamorot, around 100km (62 miles) from the city of Chefchaouen, have been ongoing since Tuesday evening.
The roads around the town are lined with cars and buses, while thousands have cheered rescuers at the site.
'I haven't slept a wink'
Rayan's father was repairing the well at the time of the accident, and has said he and Rayan's mother were "devastated and very worried".
"In that one moment I took my eyes off him, the little one fell into the well. I haven't slept a wink", he told news site le360 on Wednesday.
Speaking to Moroccan media with tears in her eyes, Rayan's mother said: "The whole family went out to look for him. Then we realised that he'd fallen down the well. I'm still keeping up hope that we'll get him out alive."
Footage on Thursday from a camera lowered into the well showed that the boy was alive and conscious, although he appeared to be suffering from some minor head injuries.
Rescue workers have lowered an oxygen mask, food and water into the well and a medical team is also on site, ready to treat the boy. A helicopter has also arrived at the scene to take him to hospital once he has been freed from the well.
On Moroccan social media, the #SaveRayan has been trending across the country as thousands of people have followed updates from local media and onlookers at the scene.
Mohamed Yassin El Quahabi, president of the Chefchaouen Association of Caving and Mountain Activities, has been helping with the rescue and he told the BBC that the narrowness of the well had hampered rescue efforts.
He added that several attempts by local volunteers and rescue workers to gain access through the well's opening have already failed.
"The problem of this rescue is that the hole diameter is very, very small, about 25cm (9.8 inches)," Mr El Quahabi said. "At the depth of 28 metres it became smaller so we couldn't reach him."
AFP
One of the rescue team explained: "The closer we get, the hole gets narrow and hard to pass through - which makes it very hard to save the child through volunteers. That's why we had to come up with another technique - which is digging.''
But authorities remain concerned that any interference with the well could accidentally hurt the five-year-old by triggering a landslide.
Rescuers who are desperately trying to reach a five-year-old boy who fell into a deep well in Morocco are entering the final stages of their operation.
They worked through the night to reach the boy, named by local media as Rayan, who plunged 32m (104ft) through the well's narrow opening four days ago.
The complex operation has gripped the North African country for days, and thousands have gathered at the scene.
Fears of a landslide have made the rescue operation more dangerous.
That risk combined with the mixture of rocky and sandy soils has meant rescuers deem opening the well's narrow shaft to be too dangerous.
Instead, bulldozers have been used to cut a huge trench next to the well and authorities say they are "almost there".
Once the trench reaches the same depth as the well, rescuers can start digging horizontally to reach the boy, a witness told Reuters news agency.
"We're almost there," said one of the operation's leaders, Abdesalam Makoudi, on Friday afternoon. "We've been working non-stop for three days and tiredness is kicking in, but the whole rescue team is hanging on."
Rescue operations led by Morocco's Civil Protection Directorate have been ongoing since Tuesday evening.
The roads around the northern town of Tamorot are lined with cars and buses, while thousands have cheered rescuers at the site.
'I haven't slept a wink'
Rayan's father was repairing the well at the time of the accident, and has said he and Rayan's mother were "devastated and very worried".
"In that one moment I took my eyes off him, the little one fell into the well. I haven't slept a wink", he told news site le360 on Wednesday.
Speaking to Moroccan media with tears in her eyes, Rayan's mother said: "The whole family went out to look for him. Then we realised that he'd fallen down the well. I'm still keeping up hope that we'll get him out alive."
Footage on Thursday from a camera lowered into the well showed that the boy was alive and conscious, although he appeared to be suffering from some minor head injuries.
Rescue workers have lowered an oxygen mask, food and water into the well and a medical team is also on site, ready to treat the boy. A helicopter has also arrived at the scene to take him to hospital once he has been freed from the well.
On Moroccan social media, the #SaveRayan has been trending across the country as thousands of people have followed updates from local media and onlookers at the scene.
Mohamed Yassin El Quahabi, president of the Chefchaouen Association of Caving and Mountain Activities, has been helping with the rescue and he told the BBC that the narrowness of the well had hampered rescue efforts.
He added that several attempts by local volunteers and rescue workers to gain access through the well's opening have already failed.
"The problem of this rescue is that the hole diameter is very, very small, about 25cm (9.8 inches)," Mr El Quahabi said. "At the depth of 28 metres it became smaller so we couldn't reach him."
AFP
One of the rescue team explained: "The closer we get, the hole gets narrow and hard to pass through - which makes it very hard to save the child through volunteers. That's why we had to come up with another technique - which is digging.''
But authorities remain concerned that any interference with the well could accidentally hurt the five-year-old by triggering a landslide.
CHINA has been accused of using the Winter Olympics to try to "whitewash" the regime's disturbing record of torture and executions.
The world's eyes have descended on Beijing as the glitzy opening ceremony kicked off the 2022 games.
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A woman is taken away for her execution after being sentenced to deathCredit: AFP
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Pictures allegedly shows Chinese officials loading a man into the back of an 'execution van'
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Uighurs are being rounded up into prison camps by the Communist Party
But hidden from view are the hideous human rights abuses allegedly carried out like clockwork by the regime.
Gory executions, brutal torture and "concentration camps" are just some of vile measures the Communist regime has allegedly inflicted on its own people for decades.
Human rights organisations have insisted Chinese authorities should not be allowed to use the Winter Olympics as a "sportswashing" opportunity to improve its tarnished reputation.
As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, it's feared China will put on a glossy and carefully stage-managed image to the rest of the world as the Communists attempt to airbrush their horrendous history of show trials, executions, and some of the worst torture imaginable - let alone alleged genocide.
Ahead of the games, China has been determined to crush any sign of dissent, and officials have warned that even foreign athletes who make political statements would be subject to "certain punishment".
But leading human rights organisation Amnesty International has blasted China for "sportswashing" in an attempt to "deflect attention" from its "abysmal human rights situation".
Most read in The US Sun
Alkan Akad, China researcher at Amnesty International, told The Sun Online: "The Chinese government is using the Olympics to try to improve its global image, capitalising on the glamour, prestige and public interest of sport to gloss over its deplorable human rights record. "
He added: "With the 2022 Games, the Chinese government aims to showcase how China has grown since the 2008 Summer Games.
"It wants to highlight China’s superpower status and deflect attention from its abysmal human rights situation. This amounts to sportswashing."
The expert warned the human rights situation has actually got worse since 2008 - and called on the world's governments to push for change in China.
In its 100 year history, the Communist party has run a murderous regime which is believed to be “the world's most prolific executioner".
Thousands are thought to perish each year at the bloody hands of authorities using firing squads, lethal injections and mobile death vans.
The true numbers of those killed by the Communist Party are thought to be staggeringly high - but the regime keeps them closely concealed as state secrets.
With successive leaders over this period, the regime has crushed peaceful opposition with anyone falling foul of the Communist Party facing the abyss of mental or physical death.
In 2020, the global figure of at least 483 recorded executions excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in China.
And horror stories from people holed up in China's hellish "black jails" have emerged ever since Xi Jinping became president as citizens are snatched off the streets and thrown into cells.
Human rights are deeply and widely disregarded by the regime. And the situation has certainly worsened in recent years
Roger Garside
So-called black jails, or Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL), see people denied all contact with the outside world, interrogated non-stop for a total of up to six months - with officers given virtually free reign to coerce confessions from, torture, threaten and mistreat victims.
Human rights activist Peter Dahlin was confined to a “suicide-padded” cell with just two silent guards for company, watching his every move for 23 days after 20 police stormed his Beijing flat in the dead of night.
The 41-year-old was deprived of sleep, access to his embassy, the right to exercise or even to sunlight - with his only source of relief from his own thoughts was exhausting late-night interrogation sessions - between six and 12 hours long.
Meanwhile, human rights groups believe China has detained more than one million Uyghur Muslims against their will over the past few years.
Hundreds of thousands have been incarcerated in a network of what the state calls "re-education camps" - but what has been branded by some as "concentration camps".
There is also evidence they are being used as forced labour in factories producing goods for well-known western brands.
Women are said to have been being sterilised and some former camp detainees have also alleged they were tortured and sexually abused.
And from the 90s and into the 00s it is claimed China sought to "eradicate" the Falun Gong religious movement, allegedly carrying out tactics such torture, organ harvesting, forced labour and "re-education".
Victims claimed they were horribly tortured such as having pins pushed under their nails, given electric shocks, been force-fed and other methods designed to inflict maximum pain and humiliation.
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Prisoners in black jails are routinely tortured and often held for up to six months before being released on probationCredit: AP:Associated Press
Amnesty's Mr Akad added: "Since early 2017, huge numbers of men and women from predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang have been arbitrarily detained.
"They include hundreds of thousands who have been sent to prisons in addition to hundreds of thousands – perhaps even a million or more – who have been sent to internment camps.
"Torture and other ill-treatment is systematic in the camps and every aspect of daily life is regimented in an effort to forcibly instil a secular, homogeneous Chinese nation and Communist party ideals."
Roger Garside - who previously worked as a Professor of China Studies at the US Navy Post-Graduate School - says Chinese authorities purposely keep their rules "ambiguous" in a bid to snare anyone at their will.
"Human rights are deeply and widely disregarded by the regime," the former diplomat told the Sun Online.
"And the situation has certainly worsened in recent years.
"There aren't clear rules - there is very deliberate ambiguity in drafting laws, so ultimately the law is whatever the party deems it to be at any time.
"Laws are drafted with careful ambiguity so that, on politically sensitive matters, the crucial decision about whether 'subject A' has broken the law or not is ultimately determined on political grounds by the Communist party.
"It is in effect and visible constantly. There are no clear red lines. People living in China are not citizens, they are inhabitants. To be a citizen is to have rights.
"They are not citizens, they are subjects of this regime. And because of deliberate ambiguity in the law, people know they have to exercise self-control and self-censorship.
"China’s constitution puts the Communist Party above the law and recognizes no limits to its authority. The Party acts as the supreme arbiter of truth and falsehood, right and wrong."
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The public sentencing of 55 people in a stadium - with some of them carted off to be killedCredit: Reuters
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A woman, convicted of murder, shouts as she hears the verdict before being taken to be executed in China
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Chinese criminals are lined up preparing to be sentenced - with 11 of them given the death penaltyCredit: AFP - Getty
China has joined Russia in opposing further Nato expansion as the two countries move closer together in the face of Western pressure.
Moscow and Beijing issued a statement showcasing their agreement on a raft of issues during a visit by Russia's Vladimir Putin for the Winter Olympics.
Mr Putin claims Western powers are using the Nato defence alliance to undermine Russia.
It comes amid tensions over Ukraine, which he denies planning to invade.
Some 100,000 Russian troops remain at the border with Ukraine, which is a former Soviet republic. Mr Putin, who has written that Russians and Ukrainians are "one nation", has demanded that Ukraine be barred from joining Nato.
While the lengthy joint statement did not refer directly to Ukraine, the two countries accused Nato of espousing a Cold War ideology.
The talks, which the Kremlin said were "very warm", were held ahead of the Games opening ceremony. It was the first time the leaders have met face-to-face since the start of the pandemic.
"Friendship between [Russia and China] has no limits, there are no 'forbidden' areas of cooperation," the statement reads.
Security alliance
The two countries said they were "seriously concerned" about the Aukus security pact between the US, UK and Australia.
Announced last year, Aukus will see Australia build nuclear-powered submarines as part of efforts to boost security in the Asia-Pacific region. It is largely seen as an effort to counter China, which has been accused of raising tensions in disputed territories such as the South China Sea.
Meanwhile Russia said it supported Beijing's One China policy, which asserts that self-ruled Taiwan is a breakaway province that will eventually be part of China again.
However, Taiwan sees itself as an independent country, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.
They had lunch, they had talks then they went off to see a show together - a big show.
Vladimir Putin is the star guest in Beijing for the start of the winter games. Of more significance to this visit is the increased co-operation and shared view of the world that Presidents Xi and Putin are keen to show.
Although Ukraine wasn't mentioned it was clearly hinted at when they both said they oppose the enlargement of the Nato alliance.
For China this is a delicate balance. Beijing has relations with Ukraine - political and economic. Any Russia invasion or military attack there could be damaging for President Xi's standing.
Amid a growing war of words, the US on Wednesday accused Russia of planning to stage a fake Ukrainian attack that it would use to justify an invasion.
Russia denied it was planning to fabricate an attack, and the US did not provide evidence to support the claim.
Earlier the US said it was sending more troops to eastern Europe to support Nato allies. Russia said the move was "destructive" and showed that its concerns about Nato's eastward expansion were justified.
While most Western leaders have chosen not to attend the Winter Olympics, Putin and Chinese premier Xi Jinping have used the games as an excuse to reaffirm ties between the two.
The Russian president appeared to be squeezing in a power nap during Ukraine’s section of the ceremony (Picture: NBC)
In a move which will worry the West, China and Russia proclaimed a deep strategic alliance on Friday to balance what they portrayed as the malign global influence of the United States.
In a joint statement, the two countries affirmed that their new relationship was superior to any political or military alliance of the Cold War era.
It said the ‘friendship between the two States has no limits, there are no “forbidden” areas of cooperation’ before announcing plans to work together in a host of areas including space, climate change, artificial intelligence and control of the internet.
The move to strengthen ties between Moscow and Beijing come after UK defence chiefs warned Russia may be planning to stage an incident to justify an invasion.
President Putin met with his Chinese counterpart and declared a deep alliance between the two countries (Picture: AP)
A spokesperson for the prime minister said: ‘I can’t comment on the specific intelligence but we have high confidence Russia is planning to engineer a pretext, blaming Ukraine for the attack in order to justify a Russian incursion into Ukraine.’
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday dismissed as ‘nonsense’ allegations by the United States that Moscow was preparing a fake video as a pretext for starting a war in Ukraine, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
US intelligence agencies believe Russia has formed a plan to use a fabricated video showing the graphic aftermath of an explosion targeting Russian people as a pretext for an invasion, Washington said on Thursday.
