Germany, UK look past tensions to strengthen post-Brexit defence collaboration

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the joint development of a new artillery system on Wednesday (24 April), underlining the urgency of close collaboration on European security despite Brexit.

Facing Russia’s war and growing threats to their security, European countries have rushed to ramp up their joint defence architecture alongside support for Ukraine.

Britain plays a vital role as it is both a nuclear power and the largest military spender in Europe in absolute numbers. However, EU defence cooperation with the British has taken a hit after their 2020 exit from the EU and the lack of a deal on the matter.

On Wednesday, Sunak and Scholz announced a number of measures to strengthen security collaboration. They underlined the need to integrate Britain closely into European efforts, moving past recent hiccups in the bilateral relationship.

“We’ve committed to delivering a new framework for our cooperation on defence, and we’re delivering an immediate expansion of our industrial cooperation,” Rishi Sunak told reporters on Wednesday. 

Most notably, the leaders agreed to launch a joint programme to develop new remote-controlled howitzer artillery systems, as the British government announced the day before.

Moreover, a new task force will develop a “structured framework” for the countries’ defence coordination, which will be due by the summer.

“We in Europe have to strengthen the European pillar of NATO, especially when it comes to having sufficient potential for deterrence,” Scholz said. “We must (…) deepen the collaboration between our countries.”

On Tuesday, before the Berlin trip, Sunak had met with Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, another major European security actor.

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“The fact that the British continue to cooperate intensely with us despite Brexit is a strong signal for the continent,” Alexander Müller, the lead MP on defence matters of the liberal FDP (Renew), a Scholz’s coalition government member, told Euractiv.

The howitzers, specifically, would fill an existing gap for Germany’s armed forces, he added.

The measures underlined that Britain and Germany are rushing to settle recent frictions, prioritising deeper security collaboration.

The relationship took a hit in January when Scholz justified why Germany could not deliver long-range missiles to Ukraine, unlike Britain, by implying that the UK was secretly deploying soldiers there.

Britain also previously clashed with Germany over the sale of jointly developed Eurofighter fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, which Berlin initially refused to greenlight due to the kingdom’s involvement in the Yemen civil war.

However, the German government signalled that it was ready to concede earlier this year.

[Edited by Rajnish Singh / Aurelie Pugnet]

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