Agency Report –
Berlin – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz departed on Sunday morning for Britain, where he is due to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the Chequers country estate outside of London.
In a one-to-one conversation and a subsequent lunch, the focus will likely be on strengthening Britain’s relations with Germany and the European Union, cooperation in NATO and support for Ukraine in its defensive struggle against Russia.
Friday marked the fifth anniversary of Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Starmer, who has been in power for seven months, is striving to move the UK closer to the 27-member bloc, which remains Britain’s largest trading partner. The prime minister is set to attend an informal EU summit in Brussels on Monday.
“We know we can do better to make Brexit work for the British people, that it’s in the UK’s national interest to have a more co-operative relationship with the EU,” a spokesman for Starmer’s office said on Friday, according to Britain’s Press Association (PA).
Starmer’s Labour Party belongs to the same political family as Scholz’s Social Democrats. During his inaugural visit to to Berlin as prime minister last August, Starmer agreed with Scholz to significantly deepen German-British relations.
An agreement was supposed to be signed at government consultations at the beginning of this year, but the collapse of Scholz’s governing coalition and early elections later this month derailed the process, with Scholz’s own political future now uncertain.
