The United Kingdom is edging towards a new defence agreement with the European Union, EU, that officials on both sides hope will help to improve post-Brexit ties amid US President Donald Trump’s upending of security and trade alliances.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is said to have been trying to reset ties with the bloc since he was elected last year and his government has focused on security and defence first – an area of strength for Britain.
That could reportedly pave the way for closer cooperation elsewhere, but Starmer needs to avoid appearing to move too closely towards Europe as his government is also seeking an improved economic deal with the United States to lower some US import tariffs.
The British prime minister will hold talks with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in London on Thursday and British and European officials are confident they will be able to strike a defence agreement at a planned Britain-EU summit next month.
German ambassador to London, Miguel Berger, said on Thursday that the reset summit on May 19 was now taking place in a very difficult political situation.
“That makes it all the more important that the European Union, the United Kingdom, and wider Europe cooperate as much as possible,” he said.
According to Berger, the May summit will likely produce a communique setting out a timetable for negotiations on other areas where Britain and the EU could work together more closely, including energy, fish, food standards and youth mobility.
Britain, which left the EU in 2020 after a landmark 2016 referendum vote, is trying to navigate the geopolitical and economic fallout from Trump’s imposition of worldwide tariffs and questioning of US security protections for allies.
Starmer’s government was also elected on a mandate to grow the economy, a feat that has been made harder by tariff uncertainty threatening a global slowdown.
In the biggest attack on the Ukrainian capital this year, Russia pounded Kyiv with hundreds of missiles and drones overnight.
Seeking to improve UK-US trade ties and secure a reduction on some US tariffs, British finance minister Rachel Reeves is due to meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington.
Reeves on Wednesday said that Britain would not lower standards in sectors such as food or autos in pursuit of a deal with the US, but it was open to seeking a reduction in trade barriers between the two sides.
