The UK and Germany

As far back as 1948, Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin declared to Parliament, "We stand for a united Germany, not a dismembered or divided Germany." The Bonn conventions of 1952 and the Bonn/Paris conventions in 1954 affirmed the commitment to a unified Germany with a liberal democratic constitution integrated into the European community.

In 1980, on the 25th anniversary of the Bonn/Paris convention, Lord Carrington reiterated that, “it will be the policy of my government to support the efforts of the FRG to work for a state of peace in Europe in which the German people can recover their unity in free determination”.

At a meeting between Helmut Kohl and Margaret Thatcher in 1984, Mrs Thatcher reaffirmed, “the conviction of successive British governments that real and permanent security in Europe will be difficult to achieve so long as the German nation is divided against its will”.

When the East German crisis broke in autumn 1989, the UK remained highly supportive of the principle of self-determination. We also gave practical help to East German refugees in British military bases. These gestures were greatly appreciated by the West German government.

The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989, precisely 2 weeks after the appointment of Douglas Hurd as foreign secretary. Mr Hurd repeated the UK’s support for self-determination and declared that Britain would even welcome unification.

At the meeting of the European Council in Strasbourg on 8 December 1989, European leaders agreed a declaration reaffirming the right of the German people to, “regain its unity through self-determination”. This was in accordance with the UK position.

Twenty years later

In 2009, unified Germany remains an essential partner for the UK. The momentous historical changes of 1989 ushered in the end of the Cold War, and ultimately brought about a new, more complex, era of international relations. Germany is now a Central European power.

Its centre of gravity, like that of the European Union, has moved eastwards in the last generation. This means that Germany has become an even more vital European partner for the UK when it comes to tackling today’s challenges. The global nature of these challenges means this partnership has become more important than ever; today’s challenges require global co-ordination and solutions.

Partners in Europe

In all of the UK’s political priorities – getting the global economy onto a path of high economic growth, achieving an ambitious global deal on climate change in Copenhagen in December, combating international terrorism and preventing nuclear proliferation – Germany is a key European partner and has a vital role to play in bringing that European leadership to the global stage.

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