Friedrich Merz will meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London, in his first official visit to the UK as German chancellor, to sign a deal on migration, defence and business. The two leaders are expected to carry out talks on security and the war in Ukraine, before unveiling an agreement to boost UK defence exports.

A specific focus of the accord is on defense, as the document identifies "the Russian Federation's brutal war of aggression on the European continent as the most significant and d