UK PM Starmer urges closer collaboration with Europe on defence

LONDON: Britain is ready to work more closely with Europe on defence in order to reduce NATO’s overreliance on the United States, Prime Minister Keir Starmer will say on Saturday, calling for more integration in Europe’s defence industry.

U.S. President Donald Trump has strained the unity of the NATO defence alliance with his desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark, a NATO member. Trump has also consistently called on Europe to spend more on defence.

Addressing the Munich Security Conference, Starmer will say the U.S. is an indispensable ally that has made an unparalleled contribution to Europe’s security, but a more European NATO will help the continent shift from overdependence on Washington.

“I’m talking about a vision of European security and greater European autonomy, that does not herald U.S. withdrawal but answers the call for more burden-sharing in full, and remakes the ties that have served us so well,” Starmer will say, according to speech extracts released by his office.

He will call for a new approach to defence procurement to avoid unnecessary duplication in the continent’s defence industrial base, saying that the current fragmentation meant that Europe was a “sleeping giant”.

Starmer has attempted to reset ties with the European Union since coming to office in 2024, four years after Britain exited the EU, and has also taken a leading role in coordinating European support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.

However, talks for Britain to join the EU’s SAFE defence fund broke down last year. Starmer has said that he is open to joining a new version of SAFE, and is looking at other ways to work more closely with Europe on defence.

The Labour Party leader came to office in the wake of successive Conservative governments whose approach to negotiations to take Britain out of the EU sometimes strained relations with Brussels.

Starmer will say that “we are not the Britain of the Brexit years anymore”, according to the speech extracts, adding that to turn inward would surrender control of Britain’s security.