UK and Germany launch joint-partnership to counter sabotage and cyber attacks

Prime Minister Andy Burnham will travel to Berlin today for talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as the UK and Germany work together on technologies and industries that will drive growth in every UK postcode, and build resilience against shared threats.

The UK and Germany are Europe's two largest economies and biggest investors in defence and today are committing to a counter-hybrid threat partnership to tackle the hostile activity that threatens security and prosperity in both our countries.

The hybrid threat from our adversaries - especially Russia - extends across Europe and beyond, threatening our collective security. The UK and Germany will jointly act on identifying and disrupting hybrid activity, wherever it comes from.

Sharing information, and coordinating action to monitor, deter and disrupt threats, the new joint-partnership will degrade hostile actors' capacity to operate in Europe, and will build resilience against cyber-attacks, sabotage and threats to critical infrastructure.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said:

Attacks on our infrastructure, our businesses and our democracies are not a distant threat. They reach into people's homes and workplaces, and they are designed to make us weaker and more divided.

Britain and Germany are joining forces to find, expose and disrupt this activity. Security and growth go hand in hand, and both must be felt in every town and city in our two countries.

In their first face-to-face meeting, the Prime Minister and Chancellor Merz will also discuss the other major security and geopolitical challenges facing Europe. This includes support for Ukraine, responding to instability in the Middle East and addressing the impact of disruption to global trade routes such as the Strait of Hormuz.

As the UK resets its relationship with Europe, the leaders will discuss how closer cooperation with European partners can strengthen security, protect economic resilience and deliver shared prosperity.

The two leaders will also convene a UK-Germany Regional Growth Forum, bringing together British and German CEOs. The forum will focus on unlocking investment, strengthening industrial partnerships and ensuring that the benefits of growth are felt in communities across both countries.

Today's announced measures build on the landmark 2025 Kensington Treaty, formally ratified today, which commits the two countries to deeper cooperation on science, technology, defence, security and growth.

Notes to Editors

• The government has already fast-tracked legislation to give the Home Secretary new proscription-like powers to designate state-backed organisations and proxy groups who threaten our national security, so the police and intelligence agencies are better equipped to disrupt those working on behalf of designated organisations and keep the public safe
• To counter hostile information operations, the Prime Minister has asked security chiefs to establish a new National Centre for Information Defence to detect, attribute and disrupt hostile state information attacks and identify dis-information and deep-fakes damaging British interests.
• Germany is the UK's second largest trading partner, and already contributes some £155 billion to the UK economy.