Starmer calls for closer UK-Europe defence cooperation

(Patria) - The United Kingdom is ready to cooperate more closely with Europe on defence to reduce NATO's over-reliance on the United States, Prime Minister Keir Starmer will say today, calling for greater integration of the European defence industry, according to a statement from his Cabinet, which includes parts of his speech at the Munich Security Conference.

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

Addressing the Munich Security Conference, Starmer stressed that the United States is an indispensable ally that has made an unparalleled contribution to European security, but that a more European NATO would help the continent shift away from over-reliance on Washington, Reuters reports.

“I am talking about a vision of European security and greater European autonomy, which does not herald a US withdrawal, but responds to the call for a greater burden-sharing in full and renews the ties that have served us so well,” Starmer will say, according to excerpts from the speech released by his Cabinet.

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

Starmer has sought to reset relations with the European Union since taking office in 2024, four years after the United Kingdom left the European Union, and has also taken a leading role in coordinating European support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

However, negotiations for the United Kingdom to join the European Union's defence fund SAFE failed last year. Starmer said he is open to joining a new version of SAFE and is looking for other ways to cooperate more closely with Europe on defence.

The Labour leader came to power after successive Conservative governments whose approach to the UK's exit negotiations from the European Union sometimes strained relations with Brussels.

Starmer will send a message today that “this is no longer the Britain of the Brexit years,” according to excerpts from the speech, adding that turning inwards would mean relinquishing control over British security.

“There is no British security without Europe, nor European security without Britain,” it states.