- October 25, 2021
UK-German relations took a blow after the 2016 Brexit referendum and the UK’s resulting exit from the EU in January 2020. Certainly, the close bilateral relations were never without conflict, with Germany being perceived as essentially an extension of the unloved Brussels. At the same time, there are the close diplomatic, economic and historical ties that make Germany and the UK allies in NATO, the UN and the G7.
In partnership with Aspen Initiative UK, Aspen Germany hosted a webinar on October 25, 2021 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. entitled “UK and Germany – Between Competition and Cooperation?”. Jill Gallard, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany and Andreas Michaelis, Germany’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom discussed the future of UK-German relations. Andreas Michaelis emphasized the role of the Northern Ireland protocol as the decisive factor in rebuilding the trust in the UK-German relationship: “Germany has invested a lot of political capital into making the protocol work“. Jill Gallard called for multilateral efforts at COP26 in November saying “there’s no point in preaching to other countries to do better if we can’t show what we’re doing here, or if we’re not helping developing countries to get there. This is a joint effort“. The discussion was moderated by award-winning author and journalist John Kampfner.
