U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey will be signing a “landmark” defense agreement with his German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, sometime this week, according to a report yesterday in Britain’s The Sunday Times. The pact is expected to enable British and German forces to conduct joint military exercises on NATO’s eastern border with Russia, most probably in Estonia and Lithuania, The Times said. It will also enable the two countries to procure more weapons together and lead to closer co-operation on developing and producing the next generation of arms.
While attending a two-day NATO summit in Brussels, Healey suggested the deal with Berlin would be the most significant bilateral agreement the U.K. has struck since David Cameron’s deal with France in 2010. That Lancaster House agreement committed the U.K. and France to much closer military co-operation, including on the testing of nuclear warheads and joint military operations.
