A spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government said on Monday that Merz will meet his French and British counterparts for “dinner” in Berlin on Tuesday evening, as per AFP.
French President Emmanuel Macron was already slated to be in Berlin, attending a summit on European digital sovereignty co-hosted by France and Germany.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is not expected to attend the summit, but will join Macron and Merz afterwards, according to the spokesperson – who provided no further details about the agenda for this meeting of the three Coalition of the Willing leaders.
Tuesday’s “European digital sovereignty” event was scheduled back in August as part of France and Germany’s joint economic agenda. It is described as a “high-level summit” of politicians, EU officials, business representatives, and other “key public and private actors in digitalization” from France and Germany.
According to AFP, major firms including France’s Mistral artificial intelligence (AI) company and German software giant SAP are expected to be present.
The reason for Starmer’s presence in Berlin after the summit appears less clear given a busy domestic agenda.
The UK government announced sweeping changes to Britain’s asylum system on Monday. In Westminster, rumors of potential challenges to Starmer’s leadership are also not showing signs of .
Starmer is also under mounting pressure to respond to US President Donald Trump’s threat to sue Britain’s public broadcaster for $1 billion over a misleading edit of one of his speeches.
There is no indication that Starmer, Merz, and Macron are meeting to discuss Ukraine. However, the three countries are major players in the Coalition of the Willing, a group of primarily European countries committed to providing post-war security guarantees for Ukraine.
Also on Monday, Macron signed a landmark 10-year security pact with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris.