Source: SFGate
“U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz signed a landmark treaty on Thursday that pledges to tighten defense ties and boost law-enforcement cooperation against criminal people-smuggling gangs using the English Channel. ‘This is a historic day for German-British relations,’ said Merz, making his first official visit to Britain since taking office in May. ‘We want to work together more closely, particularly after the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union. It is overdue for us to conclude such a treaty with each other.’ Starmer said the agreement — signed at London’s V&A Museum, which is named after Queen Victoria and her German husband, Prince Albert — was ‘a statement of intent, a statement of our ambition to work ever more closely together.’ Starmer has made it a priority of his center-left Labour Party to curb the gangs behind cross-Channel people smuggling.” (07/17/25)