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Starmer hosts Germany’s Merz for post-Brexit bilateral treaty signing
Aletha Adu in London and Deborah Cole in Berlin
Keir Starmer will welcome Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, to Downing Avenue on Thursday to signal a brand new bilateral treaty that guarantees tighter motion on smuggling gangs, expanded defence exports and nearer industrial ties between the UK and Germany.
Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz and Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer pose as they meet on the sidelines of the two-day Nato’s Heads of State and Authorities summit in The Hague. {Photograph}: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Pictures
The treaty features a German dedication to make it unlawful to facilitate unauthorised migration to the UK, closing off a key provide route utilized by smugglers working from German territory.
UK officers say the brand new regulation, anticipated to be handed by the tip of the yr, will give police and prosecutors the instruments to focus on warehouses and logistical hubs used to retailer small boats and engines linked to Channel crossings.
Police will be capable to raid warehouses, seize belongings and arrest facilitators even the place no migrants are current, a transfer the UK authorities says will considerably disrupt the provision chain behind harmful Channel crossings.
That is a comparatively late first go to for a German chancellor to the UK. Merz took workplace in Might however officers on either side say the delay was deliberate.
In his first week, Merz travelled to Kyiv with Starmer, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, in a present of European unity. London and Berlin agreed Merz’s go to ought to coincide with the signing of the treaty.
It’s anticipated to be targeted on mutual safety, together with cyber and hybrid assaults, stating that “there is no such thing as a strategic menace to 1 which might not be a strategic menace to the opposite”.
A senior German official burdened the treaty is just not meant to “change” Nato ensures or intrude with a future UK-EU safety association, however added that Brexit had left “gaps” in coordination that wanted to be stuffed.
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Elsewhere, we shall be monitoring the go to of the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, to London, the place he’ll signal a treaty between Germany and the UK.
The bilateral friendship and cooperation treaty marks the most recent part of Starmer’s bid to rebuild Britain’s affect in Europe – with out reopening formal ties with the EU – but in addition a diplomatic win for Merz’s new administration in Germany.
So let’s cross to Aletha Adu in London and Deborah Cole in Berlin for extra particulars on the deal.
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Morning opening: Preparations for deliveries for Ukraine beneath approach, Nato’s prime Europe commander says, as he warns Russia is and can stay menace
Jakub Krupa
Preparations are totally beneath approach for supply of Patriot missile programs to Ukraine, Nato’s most senior commander in Europe confirmed, as he warned that Russia is and can stay a menace to the alliance in Europe even when a peaceable answer to the battle in Ukraine is discovered.
Nato Secretary Normal Mark Rutte, US air drive Normal Alexus Grynkewich, and outgoing Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) Normal Christopher G. Cavoli, attend a ceremony the place Grynkewich takes over as Nato’s new SACEUR, on the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Casteau, Belgium. {Photograph}: Yves Herman/Reuters
Nato’s Supreme Allied Commande Europe, Gen Alexus Grynkewich, confirmed this morning that the steerage he has been given was to ship the Patriots to Ukraine as shortly as doable, making good on US president Trump’s announcement earlier this week.
“I’m not going to disclose to the Russians or anybody else the precise numbers of weapons that we’re transferring or when these will occur, however what I’ll say is that preparations are beneath approach.
We’re working very carefully with the Germans on the Patriot switch, and the steerage that I’ve been given has been to transfer out as shortly as doable.
So we’re doing that. After which we’re additionally taking a look at different capabilities and what these wants are, and dealing on proposals for our political management.”
He added:
We’re going to maneuver as shortly as we will on this.
He mentioned that Patriot programs already in Europe could be shortly moved to Ukraine, and later backfilled from the manufacturing line within the US.
“Air defence is necessary on the fashionable battlefield, and we’ve seen the dimensions of latest Russian assaults in opposition to Ukraine, so it’s a key focus space,” he mentioned.
Grynkewich, a former fighter pilot who took essentially the most senior allied publish in Europe publish earlier this month, additionally warned that even when there’s a peaceable answer in Ukraine, Russia will stay a menace.
“Battle persists on our doorstep in Ukraine.
Whereas we search a peaceable decision, even when that decision comes, the Russian capabilities which can be there’ll reconstitute and simply by their very existence shall be one thing that we’ll have to think about from the navy perspective, and perceive the way it threatens the Alliance and the freedoms that we maintain pricey.
Russia will undoubtedly, in my thoughts, stay an everlasting menace.”
Grynkewich additionally burdened the urgency of Nato stepping up extra broadly, as he warned concerning the prospect of a number of conflicts occurring on the similar time, together with a battle in Europe and a battle within the Pacific.
“These of you who hearken to our nice secretary basic, Mark Rutte, have heard him say that the factor [China’s] Xi might be going to do earlier than he decides to go throughout the Taiwan Strait is give his buddy Putin a name and ask him to assist.
That, to me, implies that each of these items may occur collectively, however we’re going to want each little bit of equipment and gear and munitions that we will with a view to meet that.
And we’ve all heard the yr 2027, that’s simply two years away, after we suppose that Xi might be able to make his transfer, and that cellphone name to Putin may come.
So time is of the essence.”
I’ll deliver you all key updates from throughout Europe immediately.
It’s Thursday, 17 July 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa right here, and that is Europe Dwell.
Good morning.
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