2 days ago
14
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
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 Street on Thursday to sign a new bilateral treaty that promises tighter action on smuggling gangs, expanded defence exports and closer industrial ties between the UK and Germany.
The treaty includes a German commitment to make it illegal to facilitate unauthorised migration to the UK, closing off a key supply route used by smugglers operating from German territory.
UK officials say the new law, expected to be passed by the end of the year, will give police and prosecutors the tools to target warehouses and logistical hubs used to store small boats and engines linked to Channel crossings.
Police will be able to raid warehouses, seize assets and arrest facilitators even where no migrants are present, a move the UK government says will significantly disrupt the supply chain behind dangerous Channel crossings.
This is a relatively late first visit for a German chancellor to the UK. Merz took office in May but officials on both sides 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 show of European unity. London and Berlin agreed Merz’s visit should coincide with the signing of the treaty.
It is expected to be focused on mutual security, including cyber and hybrid attacks, stating that “there is no strategic threat to one which would not be a strategic threat to the other”.
A senior German official stressed the treaty is not intended to “replace” Nato guarantees or interfere with a future UK-EU security arrangement, but added that Brexit had left “gaps” in coordination that needed to be filled.
Jakub Krupa
Elsewhere, we will be monitoring the visit of the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, to London, where he will sign a treaty between Germany and the UK.
The bilateral friendship and cooperation treaty marks the latest phase of Starmer’s bid to rebuild Britain’s influence in Europe – without reopening formal ties with the EU – but also 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 more details on the deal.
Morning opening: Preparations for deliveries for Ukraine under way, Nato's top Europe commander says, as he warns Russia is and will remain threat
Jakub Krupa
Preparations are fully under way for delivery of Patriot missile systems to Ukraine, Nato’s most senior commander in Europe confirmed, as he warned that Russia is and will remain a threat to the alliance in Europe even if a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine is found.
Nato’s Supreme Allied Commande Europe, Gen Alexus Grynkewich, confirmed this morning that the guidance he has been given was to deliver the Patriots to Ukraine as quickly as possible, making good on US president Trump’s announcement earlier this week.
“I’m not going to reveal to the Russians or anyone else the exact numbers of weapons that we’re transferring or when those will happen, but what I will say is that preparations are under way.
We’re working very closely with the Germans on the Patriot transfer, and the guidance that I’ve been given has been to move out as quickly as possible.
So we’re doing that. And then we’re also looking at other capabilities and what those needs are, and working on proposals for our political leadership.”
He added:
We’re going to move as quickly as we can on this.
He said that Patriot systems already in Europe can be quickly moved to Ukraine, and later backfilled from the production line in the US.
“Air defence is important on the modern battlefield, and we’ve seen the scale of recent Russian attacks against Ukraine, so it is a key focus area,” he said.
Grynkewich, a former fighter pilot who took the most senior allied post in Europe post earlier this month, also warned that even if there is a peaceful solution in Ukraine, Russia will remain a threat.
“War persists on our doorstep in Ukraine.
While we seek a peaceful resolution, even if that resolution comes, the Russian capabilities that are there will reconstitute and just by their very existence will be something that we’ll have to think of from the military perspective, and understand how it threatens the Alliance and the freedoms that we hold dear.
Russia will undoubtedly, in my mind, remain an enduring threat.”
Grynkewich also stressed the urgency of Nato stepping up more broadly, as he warned about the prospect of multiple conflicts happening at the same time, including a war in Europe and a war in the Pacific.
“Those of you who listen to our great secretary general, Mark Rutte, have heard him say that the thing [China’s] Xi is probably going to do before he decides to go across the Taiwan Strait is give his friend Putin a call and ask him to help.
That, to me, means that both of these things could happen together, but we’re going to need every bit of kit and equipment and munitions that we can in order to meet that.
And we’ve all heard the year 2027, that’s just two years away, when we think that Xi could be ready to make his move, and that phone call to Putin might come.
So time is of the essence.”
I will bring you all key updates from across Europe today.
It’s Thursday, 17 July 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
