{"id":36303,"date":"2026-02-02T06:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T22:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/02\/02\/uk-wants-closer-eu-defence-ties-with-potential-bid-to-join-eu-fund\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T06:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T22:11:00","slug":"uk-wants-closer-eu-defence-ties-with-potential-bid-to-join-eu-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/02\/02\/uk-wants-closer-eu-defence-ties-with-potential-bid-to-join-eu-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"UK wants closer EU defence ties with potential bid to join EU Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government will consider applying to join a second possible multi-billion-euro European Union fund for defence projects as his ministers prepare for talks with EU counterparts this week.<br \/>The European Commission is considering launching a second edition of its SAFE loans scheme as Europe seeks to bolster its defences due to growing fears of Russia and doubts about U.S. security commitments \u2060to Europe under President Donald Trump.<br \/>A British plan to join the original $177 billion SAFE fund broke down in November After Starmer&#8217;s government refused to pay a financial contribution to join, representing a setback for a post-Brexit reset of relations.<br \/>Asked if Britain would seek to join a new version of \u2060SAFE, Starmer said Europe needed to do more to rearm.<br \/>Starmer said &#8220;Whether it&#8217;s SAFE or other initiatives, it makes good sense for Europe in the \u2060widest sense of the word &#8211; which is the EU plus other European countries &#8211; to work more closely together.&#8221;<br \/>European Union Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and other EU officials are due in London for talks this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government will consider applying to join a second possible multi-billion-euro European Union fund for defence projects as his ministers prepare for talks with EU counterparts this week.The European Commission is considering launching a second edition of its SAFE loans scheme as Europe seeks to bolster its defences due [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - 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