LONDON — There was no horse-drawn carriage ride or banquet at Windsor Castle, as during last week’s state visit of President Emmanuel Macron of France. But when Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a landmark defense treaty Thursday, it added another layer to a portrait of Europe uniting against foreign threats.
The Anglo-German accord, known as the Kensington Treaty, pledges that both countries will “assist one another, including by military means, in case of an armed attack on the other.” That echoed language adopted by Britain and France, which agreed after Macron’s visit last week to more closely coordinate their nuclear arsenals in responding to threats against European allies.
The accord is further evidence of how European leaders are pulling together to confront a landscape scrambled by President Trump’s “America first” foreign policy and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s relentless assault on Ukraine.
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In addition to defense and security, the treaty covers energy, economic cooperation, and migration. It builds on an agreement signed last October, under which the countries agreed to conduct joint military exercises and develop sophisticated weapons.
Merz, a center-right leader who came to power in May, has swiftly emerged as a linchpin in Europe’s effort to build a more independent role in its security since the return of Trump to the White House. Starmer, who welcomed Merz to No. 10 Downing St., has likewise tried to position Britain as a critical player in European support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
“We see the scale of the challenges our continent faces today and we intend to meet them head-on,” said Starmer, standing next to Merz at an Airbus space and defense factory in Hertfordshire, north of London.
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“We are really on the way to a new chapter,” Merz said, noting that Russia’s aggression was “shaking the European security architecture” and that the trans-Atlantic alliance was undergoing “a far-reaching transformation.”
Neither Merz nor Starmer said much about Trump, though the chancellor praised the president for announcing earlier this week that the United States would supply new weapons to Ukraine through NATO. “Europe and the United States are pulling in the same direction here,” Merz said.
Germany does not possess nuclear weapons, but it is the third-largest supplier of military hardware to Ukraine, after the United States and Britain, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Under Merz, Germany has agreed to increase its military spending to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2029, its most ambitious rearmament since the end of the Cold War.
Britain and Germany have both made strides in recent years in tightening security cooperation with France, said Mark Leonard, the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a research organization. But the British-German relationship has been slower to evolve. “The signing of this treaty really is a big step forward,” he said.
Georgina Wright, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Paris, said the treaty was an “easy win” for the countries, since Britain and Germany had no institutional framework that formalized their cooperation on defense. For all its symbolism, however, she said the treaty would never be as important to Germany as its defense and security ties with France, its continental neighbor.
“This was about plugging a very clear gap,” Wright said.
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Still, Merz seemed tickled that the accord was signed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington. The museum, he said, was chosen because it was named after Queen Victoria and her German-born husband, Prince Albert, famous for their long, happy marriage. It was a hopeful omen for the treaty, he joked.
German officials even referred to the treaty as a “friendship contract,” intended to bring the two countries closer at a time of heightened security concerns, and to bridge divides that had been opened by Britain’s exit from the European Union.
At a time of economic stagnation in Britain and Germany, the friendship agreement includes steps to strengthen commercial ties, from a scientific research partnership to improved rail connections. It also features several measures related to migration.
These include new cooperation to combat human trafficking and more targeted efforts to make it easier for British and German citizens to visit each other’s countries. Frequent travelers from Britain, for example, will be able to pass through German airports more easily.
Starmer thanked Merz for a change in German law that allows authorities to seize small boats being stored in the country. “It’s a clear sign we mean business,” the prime minister said, noting that it built on the deal he signed last week with France to curb illegal migrant crossings of the English Channel.
For reasons of diplomatic protocol, Merz’s visit was more modest and businesslike than that of Macron. Unlike Macron, Merz is not a head of state (Germany has a largely ceremonial president). Starmer is the chancellor’s host, while King Charles III invited Macron, reciprocating for his own state visit to France in 2023.
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When Trump makes a rare second state visit to Britain in mid-September, he, like Macron, will get the full ruffles and flourishes. Later this month, Trump will make a semiprivate visit to his two golf clubs in Scotland. He is expected to meet with Starmer, though not with the king, while there.
Still, the lack of pomp and pageantry for Merz says little about the importance of the relationship between him and Starmer.
Both are centrist leaders, struggling to govern in polarized political systems. Both are also relatively new, meaning they could work together for years. Starmer just marked his first year in office; Macron, by contrast, is in the twilight of his presidency, with elections in France scheduled for 2027.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.