Ed Arnold, senior research fellow at the defense think tank RUSI, said the lack of concrete measures in the new partnership showed that “even on something such as defense and security, whereby the second Trump administration should be pushing them very, very close together, it’s just not quite happening that way.”
He added that it showed “disagreements remain, despite all of the language used about close alignment.”
Shadow Defense Secretary James Cartlidge posted on X: “They’ve surrendered our fishing grounds for 12 years in exchange for no guaranteed defence funding. When Labour negotiates, Britain loses.”
However, Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, congratulated the government: “It’s in our clear mutual interest to have a formalized security and defense partnership, and the British defense industry needs to play a role in restructuring European defense.”
She had previously criticized ministers’ approach to the negotiations as “lacking vision.”
Supporting Kyiv
Elsewhere, the security and defense partnership committed to strengthening collaboration in support of Ukraine, particularly on the coordination of sanctions against Russia.
