Since the Trump administration suspended billions in U.S. military aid to Ukraine last month, Europe has been desperately hunting for military leadership to defend Ukraine – as well as its own borders – against Russian aggression.
But while the transatlantic relationship frays, the European continent has found a new potential leader on military matters: the United Kingdom. Despite the U.K.’s departure from the European Union in 2016, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has volunteered his country for a larger role as Europe looks to protect Ukraine, and itself.
Mr. Starmer has offered, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, to create a “coalition of the willing” to coordinate defense support for Ukraine. As part of the plan, the U.K. and other EU members would deploy troops to strategic locations in Ukraine as a “reassurance force” in the event of a peace deal with Russia.
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Brexit left a bitter divide between the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. But amid the Trump administration’s disruptive foreign policy, they are rebuilding bonds, particularly on defense.
The U.K. has also expressed willingness to discuss sharing its nuclear deterrent with the continent. Britain and France are the only European countries, aside from Russia, with nuclear weapons.
But Britain’s status outside the European Union, as well as its long and sometimes complicated history with continental Europe – particularly France – has tempered the eagerness of EU leaders to partner with the U.K. on defense. A number of issues – particularly fishing rights – have already caused roadblocks.
How much leadership will European countries be prepared to cede to the U.K. as it looks to take a more active role in Europe’s protection?
“I hope the bigger picture prevails,” says Steven Everts, director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris. “We must protect Europeans against all threats. And we can’t do that without the U.K.”
A “unique and indispensable” relationship
In many ways, Britain is a natural partner to the EU, even though its voters shunned the bloc in 2016. The U.K. has a particularly close defense relationship with France; both are nuclear armed permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, with military bases worldwide.
Even though Germany announced in March it was amending its constitution to allow for hundreds of billions of euros in defense borrowing, it still is burdened by its Nazi past and has been reluctant to exercise its potential military might.
“France and the U.K. are able to cooperate as equals in a way that doesn’t apply to other countries,” says Luc-André Brunet, senior lecturer in contemporary international history at The Open University in Milton Keynes, England. “In terms of defense, the Franco-British relationship is unique and indispensable.”
A century of alliance after generations of rivalry notwithstanding, the British and French still clash over their militaries. In the 1960s, France’s Charles de Gaulle was a vocal opponent to Britain joining the European Common Market, due in part to the U.K.’s heavy reliance on the U.S. to maintain its nuclear deterrent. Britain’s nuclear arsenal is entirely dependent on Trident missile systems bought from and serviced by the United States.
More of that jockeying played out last week. France reportedly rejected a German-led plan that would have allowed non-EU members, such as the U.K. and Canada, to benefit from €150 billion in cheap loans to spend on defense as part of the EU Commission’s plan to rearm Europe.
That came after the British government’s rejection, on April 1, of an attempt by Europe to make London’s participation in a defense pact conditional on its readiness to allow EU fishing boats into British waters. Countries like France are currently allowed to fish there thanks to bitterly fought Brexit negotiations. The lucrative fishing rights are set to run out in June 2026.
“There’s still a lot of resentment and mistrust of Britain,” says Nick Witney, a senior policy fellow for the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in London, “and it’s largely tied up in our departure from Europe.”
Lingering distrust
Ironically, during Brexit negotiations the U.K. did not want a security partnership with the EU, even though the EU did.
“They only wanted the treaty to cover things like trade, energy, and fisheries,” says Georgina Wright, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “It is really the war in Ukraine that has brought the U.K. and the EU closer together.”
Part of the EU’s challenge now is accepting new leadership, whether from inside or outside the bloc. The EU has struggled to find a replacement for Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel – who was credited for holding a fractious EU together – since she stepped down from office in 2021.
“The problem for Europeans for the last 80 years is they don’t really trust each other,” says the ECFR’s Mr. Witney. “They resent it if someone dares to take on a leadership role.”
President Macron has been calling for a stronger, more united Europe since he first ran for president in 2017, and has from time to time seemed keen to take on the task of uniting Europe.
But it is Mr. Starmer who has been the biggest surprise for Europe. Observers say the U.K.’s current interest in European defense is unlikely to stretch to returning to the European Union. Mr. Starmer himself said last June that Britain would not rejoin the EU in his lifetime.
However, the U.K.’s increasing presence in supporting Europe at a time of heightened uncertainty is not unwelcome.
“There is a pragmatism, an awareness … and a lucidity,” says Blanche Leridon, editorial director at the Institut Montaigne think tank in Paris, “that based on what’s going on in Europe right now, we cannot do without the U.K.’s help.”
