The just under 1,000 kilometers of straight-line distance (932) between London and Berlin, and the just over 1,000 (1,096) by road, were reduced to a minimum this Thursday, at least symbolically, after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz signed a far-reaching cooperation treaty in London. Mutual commitments to security, European defense, trade and scientific promotion, migration cooperation, and practical gestures for citizen mobility—even promising a direct high-speed train between the two capitals in ten years—mark this comprehensive bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and Germany, the first since the Second World War.