British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have signed a new treaty that includes a commitment by the two countries to assist each other in the event of an armed attack, as part of a broader reset of ties after Brexit, UNN reports with reference to Bloomberg.
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Conservative leader Merz has clearly expressed his regret over the UK's withdrawal from the EU and seeks to deepen German-British cooperation. Starmer said the treaty would "bring the UK and Germany closer than ever before" as they face challenges such as US President Donald Trump's trade pressure and Russia's war against Ukraine.
"This not only marks the progress we have already made and the history we share," Starmer said in a statement released by his office ahead of Thursday's signing ceremony at London's Victoria and Albert Museum.
"It is a foundation on which we move forward to address common challenges and invest in common strengths," he added.
Merz's visit to the British capital comes a week after French President Emmanuel Macron made the first state visit by a European leader to the UK since Brexit, which helped strengthen warmer Anglo-French relations.
According to German officials, the mutual commitment of Germany and the UK to defense is a response to both an increasingly aggressive Russia and growing concerns among European allies about US commitments to the NATO military alliance.
At the same time, they emphasized that this should not replace the principle of collective defense underlying NATO's founding treaty, known as Article 5.
Starmer and Merz are also committing on Thursday to deliver a new long-range missile system - Deep Precision Strike - within the next decade, according to a statement from the UK government.
It will have a range of over 2,000 kilometers, and Starmer's office said it would help stimulate the UK and European defense sectors through "significant industrial investment."
The new treaty also contains commitments on trade, transport, and migration. Along with the agreement, Germany is expected to commit to prohibiting the facilitation of illegal migration to the UK, with legislative changes to be adopted by the end of the year, Starmer's office said.
In addition, the agreement will provide visa-free travel for school groups between the UK and Germany, Starmer's spokesman Tom Wells told reporters in London on Thursday.
Jürgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for Merz's CDU/CSU parliamentary group, said Thursday's meeting sends a "strong signal in a world full of uncertainty" and the new treaty will help make "all of Europe safer, more mobile and more prosperous."
"With this agreement, we are smoothing out the rough edges left by Brexit," Hardt said in an emailed statement.
"In doing so, we are providing an important impetus for further rapprochement between the UK and the EU in economic and trade policy, as well as in the defense sector," he noted.
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Thursday's events are a welcome distraction from domestic difficulties for both leaders. Starmer has been forced into a series of policy U-turns in recent weeks that have undermined his government's hard-won reputation for fiscal discipline, the publication notes.
Meanwhile, Merz is dealing with an increasingly unstable ruling coalition, where his conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democrats disagree on various issues, from social welfare reforms to judicial appointments, and is already drawing comparisons to the internal struggles that plagued the administration of his predecessor Olaf Scholz, the publication points out.