Contemporary German-British Cooperation`s Trends in the Field of Security and Defense

In 2024–2025, for the first time in the history of the dialogue, the UK and FRG put it on an interstate, and not just a multilateral, legal basis. The declaration, military agreement and general political agreement set the framework conditions for a sharp increase in both the volume and quality of interstate cooperation in the sphere of security and defense. The article explores its contemporary evolution in key directions. Germany and Great Britain are striving to ensure Western centricity for the forming world order. That is why the mutual willingness to take into account the interests of the partner has increased sharply, especially the one seen coming from the UK. Such cooperation corresponds to the logic of the basic tenet of neorealism: a state’s foreign policy can be successful when it meets the expectations of other players. To complete the protracted transition to a post-Brexit state of normality, Berlin and London have used the factor of focus on Russia’s ‘deterrence’. Boris Johnson’s visit to Kyiv on April 9, 2022, which greatly contributed to Ukraine’s rejection of the proposed agreement with Russia, was preceded by negotiations between the heads of the British and German governments. The parties began to demonstrate that the North Sea is NATO’s ‘internal lake’, and they sought to turn the Baltic Sea into one as well. Military-political cooperation in the Scandinavian-Baltic region has become the next most important dialogue item after the coordination of arms supplies to Ukraine. In terms of volumes, Germany and Great Britain held leading positions among the European NATO member states. The dispute over primacy in the dialogue lost its intensity, but was not resolved, as evidenced by the delays in launching the format of intergovernmental consultations. Triniti House military agreement of October 23, 2024 defined four main areas of cooperation: jointly increasing the potential for deep precision strikes, UAV fleets, cooperation of armed forces in the forward part of NATO’s area of responsibility and the North Sea. The Kensington Treaty of 17 July 2025 and its updated program of initiatives did not replace but rather developed the obligations of the parties within the bloc. The author discloses Germany’s (concentric) and the UK (dispersed) approaches to complete eFP NATO in the Nordic-Baltic region, as well as ways to increase the tactical compatibility of their contingents as a whole. It was concluded that the UK, in the context of the noticeable limitations of its own military resources, is very interested in using the growing military power of Germany, especially in the matter to ‘deter’ Russia. Germany needs Britain’s multifaceted support for its militarization as a path to leadership.