Signal No. 181 · GCAP: Germany presses for a quick answer on its terms

Boris Pistorius, Germany's defence minister, said in Berlin on Monday that the question should be settled quickly: whether Britain, Italy and Japan will take Germany into GCAP, their fighter programme, and on what terms. The three needed five years of negotiation to reach the programme's current contract status, he said. Time is now critical, because the new capability must be ready in the early 2040s; another five years of talks on German participation is not possible. "We have held first talks on this. I will shortly hold further talks with Guido Crosetto and my Japanese counterpart," he said. Those talks, with Italy's and Japan's defence ministers, are due in the coming days or weeks, with workshare on the agenda. "And then we will take the next steps, or not."

He spoke at a press conference after the second ministerial council under the British–German Trinity House Agreement. Wes Streeting, the British defence secretary, said Britain is open to German participation but will decide it jointly with Italy and Japan: "we want to understand what requirements Germany has and see whether there can be synergies."

On 8 October Andy Burnham, the British prime minister, told Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, of Britain's openness to Germany joining; government sources told dpa this was "neither a decision nor a pre-decision". In Tokyo on 28 October Merz said Japan wanted a German decision at the start of the new year, and that he could not promise it.

The other route is German-led. In June eight German companies, among them Airbus Defence and Space, Hensoldt and MTU Aero Engines, asked as Team Gen 6 that contracts for a German-led fighter come "fully and on time" in the second half of this year. On 28 October Airbus said it is working closely with the German and Spanish governments on a next-generation European fighter; Guillaume Faury, its chief executive, said Germany is reaching out to other governments, with GCAP a clear potential partner, by Reuters' account.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to Berlin on Tuesday, unannounced for security reasons, and met Friedrich Merz at the chancellery. Merz said Germany would continue its support until the war ends, but "all Europeans bear responsibility, not only the Germans". NATO allies had agreed on EUR 70 billion of military support for Ukraine in 2026, he said: "We must also make sure that all partners meet this commitment." The Coalition of the Willing meets in Berlin on 19 November. Germany is adding a further EUR 200 million of winter aid, about half of it from the Foreign Office budget, by dpa's account.

Zelenskyy said the talks covered further PAC-2, PAC-3 and IRIS-T missiles, new support for Ukraine's F-16s and a German winter package; no quantities were given. Merz said the local ceasefire in Oleshky, a six-day pause from 27 October to 1 November to evacuate civilians and bring in aid, could be a model for a wider one.

Britain and France will jointly lead Exercise Koalicja for the Multinational Force Ukraine, the Coalition of the Willing's military arm, the Ministry of Defence announced on Tuesday. From 9 to 22 November it will test how to move, protect and supply a force that would help rebuild Ukraine's armed forces once the fighting ends. Of the 2,800 troops, 300 are British, among them soldiers of 7 Brigade; Britain also sends RAF Typhoons and a Voyager tanker. The 11 nations are Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye and Britain.

The force would move into Ukraine only after the fighting stops and at the request of Ukraine's government, the ministry says, and would not carry out peacekeeping or ceasefire-monitoring duties. Lieutenant General Tom Bateman commands the force, whose headquarters moves from Paris to London this year. Emmanuel Macron, France's president, announced Coalition of the Willing exercises in Poland in August; in October Britain and Poland announced a major one for November.

Belgium's federal prosecutor has opened a criminal investigation into the attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, it told VRT. Coop stores run by the Radenza group in Sicily, at least three in Catania and one in Palermo, were hit too, and Italian police are examining links with the other countries; six stores in Romania were also targeted, VRT reports. The Commission held two meetings on the attacks, one of the EU's inter-institutional cybersecurity task force and one through EU-CyCLONe, the member states' network for large cyber incidents. Delhaize, Carrefour and Spar say their Belgian stores are back to normal. No perpetrator has been named.