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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 it's a privilege to have you here

00:54today particularly to sign this kensington treaty which is a very special treaty because it's the

01:02first of its kind ever if you can believe it between our two countries and i see it very much as evidence

01:09of the closeness of our relationship as it stands today the strength of our values the strength of

01:14our joint approach but also very much as a statement of intent a statement of our ambition

01:20to work ever more closely together closest of allies and whether that's on defense security

01:27trade the economy energy covers so much in this treaty and so this is a really historic signing

01:34of a historic agreement secure starmer historic indeed it's the first time they've signed a treaty

01:39of this size since 1945 a point i put to our political correspondent rob watson it is quite remarkable

01:46and both sides making a lot of that it's worth bearing in mind though of course christian that

01:51they have until recently both been members of the european union with all of the closeness that that

01:56entailed in terms of market cooperation customs union and they are of course both members long-standing

02:03members of nato that the main defense alliance so you know there is a certain amount of spin going on

02:10with this but absolutely it's a proper treaty and what downing street is saying is that the 29 pages of the

02:16treaty essentially cover cooperation on issues ranging from migration and security to sort of

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

02:31for the teams to put everything on paper before the two men get together so that's not entirely

02:36surprising but they did just say during this sit down that there's an awful lot to discuss this

02:41afternoon where 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 much

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

03:04uh to their right both of them are rather concerned about the reliability of president trump as a as an

03:11ally in dealing with issues such as ukraine and both men are of course worried about what they see as an

03:17aggressor in the kremlin in the form of vladimir putin i mean that of course is what is helping if you like

03:22the rapprochement between britain and the european union as a unit and individual countries like germany it's

03:29sort of forcing them together but i mean i guess the things that they need to work out uh you know what

03:34exactly would happen in terms of a peacekeeping force if russia and ukraine were to agree a ceasefire

03:40and you know yes of course there are sort of details to be worked out on how any increased european defense

03:46spending would be spread around allies like germany and and the uk yeah he has already announced of course

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

03:58euros but they are both uh now tied to this new target core defense spending of 3.5 percent

04:07is it impossible for 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

04:27it's easier if you say hey look it's not just us doing it it's the germans are doing what the germans

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

04:37european efforts 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 both

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

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

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

05:05afternoon 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

05:15to our berlin correspondent damian mcginnis sort of underlines why these connections in europe are

05:21so important 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 views a threat to themselves as well potentially

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

05:49germany because traditionally german trade german security all relies on the one hand on the u.s

05:54itself but 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 u.s fully anymore is quite a traumatic idea for germany and that's really

06:19why the new chancellor friedrich martz 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 martz was installed as chancellor the first thing he did

06:37the next day he went to france he went to poland he then went on a joint trip to ukraine and now

06:42he's in the uk so i think we're seeing a chancellor here who's very keen on european cooperation he sees

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

06:55the u.s the british side of course uh very happy to be more deeply integrated when it comes to

07:01defense given the amount of spending that uh is ahead but they do exact a price for it and that

07:07is on migration this agreement to crack down on warehousing of smugglers boats and engines

07:14it would surprise people perhaps watching in europe damien that the police in germany don't already

07:20have the powers to crack down on that

07:22i mean if you look at this particular friendship treaty um i know it's being sold in the uk by the

07:31british government as a big deal on migration in fact it's just a couple of paragraphs in a 23 page

07:37document so today's meeting is not really about migration primarily it's really about defense

07:42and the economy but yes there are um there are links between the uk and germany um when it comes to

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

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

08:01mertz is someone who talks very tough on migration uh really in line with the uk government and i think

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

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

08:20we're talking about today of course that could well change when the action plan comes out because

08:24this treaty is really you know almost like a document of intent it's saying what they want to

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

08:34international 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

08:47damien mcginnis of course these two politicians are from different sides of the political track

08:54but they both face similar pressures which amma cullvoy 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

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

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

09:19have a number of things in common in terms of challenges and there's a 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 there's been so powerful in german politics 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 is a skin in the game in ukraine he's gone a lot further than his

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

10:08particularly as donald trump has pulled back on on some of those commitments so i think they have

10:12a lot to talk about today and so it's sense of them slightly propping each other up i'm mccall

10:18a lot to talk about today and there is a lot of reporting there is a lot of reporting there is a lot

UK and Germany sign trade and security treaty BBC News - BBC News

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