The leaders of Germany and the United Kingdom announced plans in Berlin on Wednesday to strengthen trade, defence and other ties between the two countries. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed visiting Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s pledge to “reset” the UK’s relations with the EU, saying “we want to take this outstretched hand.”
Starmer’s arrival in Germany marks the new Prime Minister’s first bilateral visit there since taking office seven weeks ago. His visit follows last month’s wave of unrest in the UK that ensued after a knife attack led to anti-immigration riots, which officials attributed to far-right elements and false information on social media postings.
Speaking In Berlin, Starmer said that the two countries plan to draw up a “joint action plan to tackle illegal migration.” Despite scrapping the Conservative government’s controversial plan to dispatch migrants to Rwanda, the new Labour government is under pressure to put a stop to migrants crossing the English Channel. Migration is similarly a contentious issue for the Scholz government in Germany, the more so since last week’s Solingen attack, for which a suspected extremist from Syria who had avoided deportation is accused of killing three people.
The UK, which exited the EU in 2020, remains a member of NATO, the G7 group of industrial democracies and the G20 comprising the world’s biggest economic powers. Starmer has pledged to rebuild trust with European allies damaged by Brexit. However, he has ruled out rejoining the bloc. The UK’s new Labour government also seeks to draft a new security and defence treaty with Germany. According to London, the German visit is “crucial” in the effort to tackle illegal migration and for “boosting economic growth across the continent and crucially in the UK.”
Starmer told a press conference that the proposed new treaty, which the leaders hope to conclude by year’s end, is a “once-in-a-generation chance to deliver for working people in Britain and Germany” and would enable them to foster; “deeper links on science, technology, development, people, business [and] culture.”
Military support for Ukraine was also on the agenda. According to Starmer, “no new or different decisions had been made” about how British or German weapons sent to
Ukraine might be used. His government was sticking to the strategy of its predecessor in office, he said, and would continue to support Kyiv “consistent with the approach of other key allies, including Germany.” Britain, he stressed, remained determined “to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
Scholz reiterated Berlin’s ongoing support for Kyiv, noting that “as far as weapon supplies are concerned, there are no new decisions from Germany.”
