UK and Germany sign trade and security treaty | BBC News - video Dailymotion

Bbc News

#Germany  #UK  #BBCNews  UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz held a news conference after signing the first UK-Germany treaty since World War Two.    The deal includes co-operation on security and defence, bilateral trade, and scientific research.    Starmer has said the Kensington Treaty is the "first of its kind" and a "statement of intent”.    Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog    For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news    #Germany #UK #BBCNews

Transcript

00:00news the uk and germany have signed this afternoon a treaty on trade and security which the prime

00:05minister sakir starmer says is the first of its kind between the two countries the agreement which

00:11will be known as the kensington treaty spells out a threat that a threat to one country will be seen

00:17as a threat to the other that is being seen as an implicit warning to russia putting all that

00:23into context germany is now the third largest supplier of military hardware to ukraine which

00:28has angered moscow also in the deal steps to strengthen commercial ties a new partnership

00:33on scientific research talk of improved rail connections and crucially important to sakir

00:39starmer there will be several measures germany will adopt that may help stem the flow of illegal

00:45migration here's what the prime minister said after the signing

00:49it's a privilege to have you here uh today particularly to sign this kensington treaty

00:59which is a very special treaty because it's the first of its kind ever if you can believe it

01:04between our two countries and i see it very much as evidence of the closeness of our relationship as it

01:11stands today the strength of our values the strength of our joint approach but also very much as a statement

01:18of intent a statement of our ambition uh to work ever more closely uh together closest um of allies

01:25and whether that's on defense security trade the economy energy covers so much in this treaty and so

01:31this is a really historic signing of a historic uh agreement secure starmer historic indeed it's the

01:38first time they've signed a treaty of this size since 1945 a point i put to our political correspondent

01:43rob watson it is quite remarkable and both sides making a lot of that it's worth bearing in mind

01:50though of course christian that they have until recently both been members of the european union

01:54with all of the closeness that that entailed in terms of market cooperation customs union and they

02:01are of course both members long-standing members of nato that the main defense alliance so

02:06you know there is a certain amount of spin going on with this but absolutely it's a proper treaty

02:12and what downing street is saying is that the 29 pages of the treaty essentially cover

02:17cooperation cooperation on issues ranging from migration and security uh to sort of business

02:25and commerce the signing ceremony has already taken place it is usual in these circumstances for the

02:32teams to put everything on paper before the two men get together so that's not entirely surprising

02:37but they did just say during this sit down that there's an awful lot to discuss this afternoon

02:42where are the sticking points between the two sides

02:44well do you know i i think there's more um i think there's more lubrication than sticking between

02:52them actually um christian it's one of those moments where you know you have two leaders who are very

02:58much dealing with a similar set of problems i mean they're both very concerned about political

03:03challenges uh to their right uh both of them are rather concerned about the reliability of president

03:10trump as a as an ally in dealing with issues such as ukraine and both men are of course worried

03:15about what they see as an aggressor in the kremlin in the form of vladimir putin i mean that of course

03:21is what is helping if you like the rapprochement between britain and the european union as a unit

03:27and individual countries like germany it's sort of forcing them together but i mean i guess the things

03:32that they need to work out uh you know what exactly would happen in terms of a peacekeeping force

03:37if russia and ukraine were to agree a ceasefire and you know yes of course there are sort of

03:42details to be worked out on how any increased european defense spend spending would be spread

03:48around allies like germany and and the uk yeah he has already announced of course uh chancellor

03:53mertz that they're going to up defense spending quite considerably up to about 350 billion euros but

04:00they are both uh now tied to this new target core defense spending of 3.5 percent is it impossible

04:09for the two sides to get to that figure if they don't work closely together

04:13well i think it's certainly more difficult right and i think that the approach the approach that they

04:21take it is to try and make their arguments to their respective nations and fellow politicians it's

04:28easier if you say hey look it's not just us doing it it's the germans are doing what the germans can

04:32say the brits are doing it so to that extent if you're sort of saying it's a combined european

04:38efforts both on a sort of political front and a military front absolutely that that helps i mean

04:44are they going to be urging each other to spend more behind closed doors no i mean you know they

04:49both know the sort of fiscal limits they're up against but absolutely i mean i think they see

04:54common purpose and being able to say to that you know to their voters in both countries hey you

04:59know we're working together rob watson there well while the two leaders were sitting down together

05:04this afternoon the chair of the german bundesbank was saying that if tariffs do materialize

05:10in august then a recession in germany next year cannot be ruled out that's a point i was putting to

05:16our berlin correspondent damien mcginnis sort of underlines why these connections in europe are so

05:21important i think that's the main motivation behind this renewed boost for cooperation between

05:27germany and the uk uh of course you know this is in the backdrop to russia's full full invasion of

05:34ukraine which germany and most european countries view as a threat to themselves as well potentially

05:40but also um of course the lack of certainty in uh relying on the us and that's a real problem for

05:49germany because traditionally german trade german security all relies on the one hand on the us itself

05:55but also on the idea that the rules-based international order uh works and it functions and

06:02that's how the german economy keeps going because it trades with all sorts of countries including china

06:06in particular and the idea that this rules-based order is breaking down and the idea particularly

06:13that you can't rely on the us fully anymore is quite a traumatic idea for germany and that's really

06:19why the new chancellor friedrich mertz is really pushing to deepen european cooperation not necessarily

06:27just with the eu as we're seeing you know talk about cooperation with you know in great detail with

06:32the uk but you know as soon as friedrich mertz was installed as chancellor the first thing he did the

06:38next day he went to france he went to poland he then went on a joint trip to ukraine and now he's in

06:43the uk so i think we're seeing a chancellor here who's very keen on european cooperation he sees that

06:48to a certain extent as a bulwark against the uh the lack of unreliate of reliability from uh the us

06:56the british side of course uh very happy to be more deeply integrated when it comes to defense given

07:02the amount of spending that uh is ahead but they do exact a price for it and that is on migration

07:08this agreement to crack down on warehousing of smugglers boats and engines it would surprise

07:16people perhaps watching in europe damien that the police in germany don't already have the powers to

07:21crack down on that i mean if you look at this particular friendship treaty um i know it's being

07:29sold in the uk by the british government as a big deal on migration in fact it's just a couple of

07:35paragraphs in a 23 page document so today's meeting is not really about migration primarily it's really

07:41about defense and the economy but yes there are um there are links between the uk and germany um when

07:50it comes to migration one of them is a pledge by the german government to you know they they would say

07:55as well crack down on irregular migration and people smuggling and i think what we're seeing

08:01in friedrich merz is someone who talks very tough on migration uh really in line with the uk government

08:07and i think this is something they're going to be talking about certainly but if you're looking at the

08:12the concrete measures it's actually not really the main the main topic of conversation in this concrete

08:19treaty that we're talking about today of course that could well change when the action plan comes out

08:23because this treaty is really you know almost like a document of intent it's saying what they want

08:29to do it's lots of pledges about deepening cooperation in every imaginable field really when it comes

08:34to international relations it really comes down to what are the concrete steps going to be and i think

08:40that'll be interesting to see on the one hand of course with defense and the economy but also whether

08:44they're going to be more concrete steps when it comes to migration as well

08:47damian mcguinness of course these two politicians are from different sides of the political track

08:54but they both face similar pressures which amma calvoy was telling me about the executive editor

09:00at politico i think it creates a different form of relationships when you have allied parties or

09:08schultz was a social democrat so essentially is is keir starmer in the in the british tradition

09:12labor but in friedrich math is quite a flinty center right leader as you've just described it

09:18they do have a number of things in common in terms of challenges and the big one that you didn't

09:22mention but i think drives a lot of politics for both of them in britain keir starmer has reform coming

09:28after him reform uk and nigel farage to his right in germany friedrich merz is seeing that center and

09:33center right that's been so powerful in german politics and in the 30 or so years since i've been

09:40covering it and before from helmut kohl's era onwards of german unification christian democracy

09:45is under big threat from the rise of the afd and the alternative for deutschland to the right and

09:50even further right one should say than reform uk in many of its positions so yes i think they both

09:57have a lot in common i think merz has a skin in the game in ukraine he's gone a lot further than his

10:02predecessor about committing germany to be more actively involved in supplying weaponry particularly

10:08as donald trump has pulled back on on some of those commitments so i think they have a lot to talk

10:13about today and so it's sense of them slightly propping each other up i'm mccall hoy reporting there is a line

UK and Germany sign trade and security treaty | BBC News

Category

Transcript

Recommended