Burnham and Merz Ratify a Treaty Against Hybrid Attacks
Andy Burnham makes his first official visit to Germany today and meets Friedrich Merz for the first time, received with military honours at the Chancellery. The two will formally ratify the 2025 Kensington Treaty, which covers science, technology, defence, security and growth. Mr Burnham says the two countries are “joining forces to find, expose and disrupt” threats.
His argument is that this is not a specialist concern: “Attacks on our infrastructure, our businesses and our democracies are not a distant threat. They reach into people’s homes and workplaces, and they are designed to make us weaker and more divided.” The immediate context is Leipzig-Halle airport, a freight hub used to supply Ukraine, where Germany last month accused Russia of launching a drone fitted with explosives; a senior Russian diplomat was summoned in London over it and Moscow denies involvement. Two complications sit underneath the ceremony. August Hanning, who ran Germany’s foreign intelligence service from 1998 to 2005, has been arrested on suspicion of espionage, treason and obtaining classified information for a foreign power, which raises an awkward question about the partner Britain is binding itself to. And Mr Merz is weak at home after poor approval ratings and regional setbacks. Running alongside all of this is a second European conversation. France’s finance minister Roland Lescure told the BBC “come back, anytime” and “come all the way”, after Mr Burnham said a second referendum was “possible” in a future manifesto and that Britain should consider the options. Mr Lescure’s practical point concerned Made in Europe, the scheme that could shut British supply chains out of EU public contracts: “Come back, and you’ll be at the table.”