{"id":432774,"date":"2025-07-17T18:09:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T16:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/07\/17\/germania-e-regno-unito-siglano-un-accordo-di-amicizia-che-le-impegna-a-difendersi-a-vicenda\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T18:35:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T16:35:34","slug":"germany-and-the-uk-sign-a-friendship-treaty-committing-them-to-defend-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/07\/17\/germany-and-the-uk-sign-a-friendship-treaty-committing-them-to-defend-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany and the UK sign a friendship treaty committing them to defend each other"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Eighty years after the end of World War II, Germany and the United Kingdom signed the first bilateral agreement in their history today (17 July). A friendship treaty, that commits the two powers of the continent to mutual defence<\/strong> in the event of a crisis and identifies several areas where cooperation can be intensified, primarily the defence industry. <\/p>\n

The Kensington Treaty<\/em> was signed and presented to the public by the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer,<\/strong> and the German Chancellor,<\/span> Friedrich Merz<\/strong>, who was visiting London. After the Brexit<\/a>, London signed bilateral declarations of intent with several EU countries, including Italy. However, a week after the pact on nuclear deterrence<\/span> between Starmer and the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, the defence-focused agreement between London and Berlin completes, in some ways, the triangle of treaties between the E3<\/strong>, the format that brings together France, Germany,<\/span> and the UK. <\/p>\n

It provides for close security and defence cooperation, including nuclear deterrence. And an explicit commitment by the UK and Germany to treat a threat against one as a threat against the other, declaring that the<\/strong><\/span> two countries will “assist each other, including by military means, in the event of an armed attack<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron in London, 10 July 2025. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN \/ POOL \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

Furthermore, “we will speed up the cooperation on high-tech military weapons and equipment<\/strong>,” Starmer told a press conference. The two sides pledged to “promote export campaigns” to secure international orders for the equipment they jointly produce, including the Eurofighter Typhoon jet and the Boxer armoured vehicle.<\/p>\n

The agreement, although largely negotiated by Merz’s predecessor, Olaf Scholz, is in line with the new chancellor’s push to discuss the extension of Franco-British nuclear deterrence to the rest of Europe<\/strong>. In May, Merz and Macron announced their intention to establish a high-level Franco-German security council. Today, the agreement with Starmer establishes similar annual strategic dialogues between the foreign ministers of the two countries. <\/p>\n

“It is no coincidence that I am here a week after the French president’s state visit to London,” Merz said, emphasising that “Britain, France, and Germany are converging in their positions<\/strong> on foreign policy, security policy, migration policy, but also on economic policy issues.”<\/p>\n

Starmer explained that the agreement outlines a “practical work plan” and “17 main projects”. In addition to defence and security, London and Berlin pledge to cooperate in the fight against the smuggling of migrants, a pet project of the new British Labour administration. Merz is said to have promised Starmer a legislative crackdown in Germany against the boats of the smugglers<\/strong> who fuel irregular migration across the Channel, and Macron agreed<\/a> to take back on French soil migrants expelled from London. Finally, the bilateral friendship treaty covers a new direct rail link between the two countries and greater cooperation in youth exchanges.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is the first bilateral agreement between the two countries: in addition to military assistance, Berlin and London promise cooperation on nuclear deterrence and migrant smuggling. Merz: “Great Britain, France, and Germany are converging in their positions”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":432752,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[27755,27336,26267,29635,27637],"class_list":["post-432774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-friedrich-merz-en","tag-kingdom-united-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432775,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432774\/revisions\/432775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}