UK and Germany Sign Landmark Trade and Security Treaty

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COURTESY bbc news The United Kingdom and Germany have officially signed a historic trade and security agreement, strengthening their cooperation on economic and defense issues. This milestone aims to deepen European partnership and response strategies amid current global challenges. Stay tuned for more details on the implications of this treaty. #UK #Germany #TradeAgreement #SecurityTreaty #EuropeanUnion #BBCNews #InternationalRelations #GlobalPartnership #Defense #Economy

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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

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

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

01:17as a statement of intent a statement of our ambition to work ever more closely together closest of

01:24allies and whether that's on defense security trade the economy energy covers so much in this treaty

01:30and so this is a really historic signing of a historic 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 and

02:13what downing street is saying is that the 29 pages of the treaty essentially cover cooperation

02:18cooperation on issues ranging from migration and security to sort of business and commerce

02:26the signing ceremony has already taken place it is usual in these circumstances for the teams to

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

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

02:42sticking 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 them

02:52actually 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

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 about

03:16what they see as an aggressor in the kremlin in the form of vladimir putin i mean that of course is

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

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

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

03:37force if 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 spending would be spread around

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

03:54they'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 uh 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

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 that 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 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 to

05:16our berlin correspondent damian 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 germany

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

05:35which 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 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 that's how the

06:02german economy keeps going because it trades with all sorts of countries including china in particular

06:07and the idea that this rules-based order is breaking down and the idea particularly that you can't rely

06:15on the us fully anymore is quite a traumatic idea for germany and that's really why the new chancellor

06:21friedrich martin is really pushing to deepen european cooperation not necessarily just with the eu as we're

06:28seeing you know talk about cooperation with you know in great detail with the uk but you know as soon as

06:34friedrich martin was installed as chancellor the first thing he did the next day he went to france

06:39he went to poland he then went on a joint trip to ukraine and now he's in the uk so i think we're seeing

06:45a chancellor here who's very keen on european cooperation he sees that to a certain extent as a bulwark

06:51against the uh the lack of unreliate of reliability from uh the us the british side of course uh very happy

06:59to be more deeply integrated when it comes to defense given the amount of spending that

07:03uh is ahead but they do exact a price for it and that is on migration this agreement to crack down

07:10on warehousing of smugglers boats and engines it would surprise people perhaps watching in europe

07:18damien that the police in germany don't already have 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

08:01merz 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 do it's

08:29lots 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

09:08or love shorts 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 they do

09:19have a number of things in common in terms of challenges and the big one that you didn't mention

09:23but i think drives a lot of the 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

09:34center 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 have

09:57a 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 being 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 a sense of them slightly propping each other up i'm mccall hoy reporting there

10:18is a line

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