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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