order of the e.u. without the u.k. having any say on those matters so we do need that backstop removed but if we can do that then i'm absolutely certain that we can move forward together and i want to make one crucial point which is that we in the u.k. are absolutely dedicated to the protection of the rights of the 3200000 e.u. nationals in our country who do so much to contribute so much to our country and of course in particular our german our german friends so that's why i'm here tonight thank you very much for that wonderful welcome and i look forward to developing our friendship and our relationship. thank you ben right from the b.b.c. question to the prime minister 1st please mr johnson the e.u. says it will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement under any circumstances so

are you prepared to compromise or is this trip simply posturing before you blame the e.u. for no deal breaks it. and chancellor merkel with all agreement was defeated in parliament 3 times in britain it has been buried by boris johnson why when you reopen it in the few weeks that are left or do you see the bracks a crisis now as the u.k.'s problem to solve thank you. thanks very much ben yes of course i think there is ample scope to do a deal and diaby sprained i think pretty clearly what needs to happen we need to remove those elements of the of the withdrawal agreement that simply don't work for the u.k. i've spoken of the things that i think are sensible the protections of the rights of. those but the the backstop that particular arrangement which i do think has.

grave grave defects for a democratic country so every democratic country like the u.k. that plainly has to go but once we get rid of it if we can change it then i think there is the real prospect of making progress very rapidly indeed that's one. before for not really see this mansion we have following the discussions in the parliament in the u.k. may know that the backstop has been the subject of discussion once written it is a construction that has been created by us here so that we can predict what will happen. if we have no negotiations or no negotiating with drawl that sets out how the single market can take place between the most airlines and not the republic of ireland and northern ireland so it is the expression of this problem that hasn't been solved but as soon as we can set out clearly how we

can solve this problem the whole backstop idea is no longer necessary and disappears as it were because then we have regulated the relationship between britain and the u.k. particularly. in terms of relationship between the northern ireland has its anti-catholic violence and the backstop has always only been a last resort if we don't need this last resort and you know if we're saying we might find that agreement in the next 2 years but i'm sure we'll find it in the next 30 days why shouldn't we that would take a big step forward and we have to pull all the stars out and make sure we manage to do it however this does work on the assumption that we have clarity about the future relations between the u.k. and you know you and i think this clarity. he's emerging so we have

a great deal to talk about over the course of the evening no doubt. want you out on top here. on the strong side of the. park yesterday you talked about now there's some fog practical solution for the pardon of northern ireland seeing how could this solution look or how does your colleagues and you were just saying that needs to be she could be achieved in the next 30 days how realistic do you think that is how do you expect to negotiate with the european union in the case of an ideal wouldn't you be going back to the very same leaders that you've just rebuffed with a much more difficult negotiating position and you see a prospect of a time limited backstop as a viable. i will estimate it on my balloon 1st to emphasize once again. something that has worked very well in recent years that the commission is negotiating for us and the 27 member states have the aim and we will succeed i

believe in achieving. a unified position on the u.k. and this is important because well on the other hand the u.k. also needs to tell us what their ideas are because to be perfectly honest it is not the core business of a chancellor of germany to know the relationships or to northern ireland to the fabric of ireland so well as i mean i think there's a lot linked to the tried a green lantern the sensitivities that is best known in ireland and britain better than in germany this is why we want to listen to the british museum things are a mystery i'm sure that a single market this has integrity naturally if somebody wants to leave a single market we have to ensure that our integrity is preserved and just as we've discussed many issues with a certain amount of magination within the european union and reach solutions i

believe that we'll be able to do that here as well and that is the job as we've heard. we want we're taking it very seriously when britain says that they want to withdraw by the 31st of october so that means we don't have 12 months to find a solution if we have less time if we attack negotiate draw thank you for just stress on the point about the border in northern ireland the united kingdom will under new circumstances implement checks customs checks will any archetypal checks at the border in in order that is that is absolutely clear we think that there are ways of protecting the integrity of the e.u. single market without doing having checks of that kind at the border much clearly what we need to be to work home too. 2 to secure and all your question about the time it i'm i'm not attracted to a time limit i think there are other flaws with the with the backstop i think what

we need to do is remove it whole and entire removed the backstop and then and then work as chancellor merkel says on the alternative arrangements and there are abundant solutions which are profitable already been discussed i don't think to be fair they've so far been very actively proposed over the last 3 years by the british government and now is the moment you rightly say the good is on us to produce those solutions those ideas to show how we can address the issues of the northern irish border and that is what we want to do but i may say i'm very glad listening to you tonight. to hear that at least the conversations on that matter cannot properly begin and you've set a very strong timetable that of 30 days if i understood you correctly i'm i'm more than happy with that. sandpaper sky knees

forest angle of merkel has just asked you whether you'll going to put forward specific plans to solve the northern ireland question are you in can you spell about for us now angela merkel boris johnson has made a cost on commitment that britain will never restore any hard infrastructure or any other facets of a hard border can you make the same promise today. yes obviously we will we do think that there are alternative arrangements that could readily be used to address the problem of friction is trade at the northern irish border and you'll have heard them before whether it's trusted trader schemes or electronic pretty clearing all that type of solution and more besides these what we will be i want to discuss and you'll see the excellent report by the way by by greg hands and others just in the last couple of days about the kind of alternative arrangements that could be called to play to. a script. but also.

statements that are both correct one. britain wants to lead. the other is that the good friday agreement must adhere to and that's not just britain is saying that it's also the future members and existing existing member of the earth union republic of ireland so this is part of our european position so now we just have to bring these 2 positions together. and that would seem at 1st glance to be not particularly easy but it has to be done so that we can say that we have found a solution. see if it's. facing it from the writers now you have the both of us signalized a willingness to compromise but the basic problem remains a chance that you do not want to change the withdrawal agreement and you and prime

minister are not in agreement with the change in the future cooperation gets the principles though isn't the main problem still there and it's not just about what blaming one another it's with their words and if i could also say the u.s. president was lucky looking at the g 7 suggested that russia be included in this circle are you in favor or against so that your home the kind of missile got a solution yet and your question is not really justified but we cannot possibly answer today and we're just going to have to wait and see whether something emerges i see options. in terms of looking at how we structure our future relations and that we make sure that this is a very sound robust resolution that we find here and the rest is just going to be hard work and then not regarding the involvement of russia at the g. 7 but 2007 russia was suspended for particular reasons and the russian

president was recently in france. it's like the and there may be some movement around the implementation of the ments agreement if we were to make a real progress here then very likely a new situation would indeed emerge but i have to tell you from where we are today not that much progress has been made so that we could say that the reasons that were placed in 2014. will be dismantled but do it at all and talk of those i know is one of germany and europe. and france but particularly germany and france working together with this is a landscape working together with putin have to look at how we can make progress and. based on the progress we actually make have to tell you where we really are just on your your point about the seeming impossibility of the of the of the negotiations i've in my life watched

a lot of european negotiations and believe me it looks at 1st as though it's you know. irresistible force and the movable object and what in my experience happens is that people find a way through and i think that if we approach this with sufficient patience and optimism as i say we can get this done and it's in the it's in the final furlong generally when the horses change places and the winning deal appears on yours on your 2nd very good point about russia and the g. 7 i'm aware of course of the of the moves to to reintegrate russia into the g 7 and i just have to say that. given what happened in sue's brain given that the use of chemical weapons on the producer given the continuing. instability civil war the war in ukraine.

given that russia's provocations. not just in ukraine but in many other places i must say i'm very much with chancellor merkel in thinking that the case has yet to be made out for russia to return to the g 7 i think it probably is yet another example if i may say so an area where the. u.k. and germany have a common position. good unction thank you very much we need to go and get down to work. we are watching i know watching the press conference you know watching a press conference between the german chancellor and going to the british prime minister. and the german chancellor and. then listening and with me state of brecht's attack analyst alex forrester wising so brags that clearly

a big part of what these 2 leaders are going to be talking about they went to great pains to say this is there's other stuff going on as well most of the questions were about to bragg's it did you hear anything new i thought it was well the 1st thing that really struck me was boris johnson confirming that the 3200000 nationals living in the u.k. would be protected because there's been a lot of concern about over the past a few days particularly because the government said that if there's no deal bret's that freedom of movement and on the thursday festival into the 1st of november so many national sieving in the u.k. have been very concerned about that so he's guaranteeing citizens flights that. which to me is the may have done before his predecessor people were concerned with boris johnson so he's done it just that so that's good news on that front i thought it was very interesting. how he was playing the backstop particularly the

issue of having alternative arrangements in place instead of having an irish backstop he said categorically it was picked up a in one of those questions that the that the u.k. would not put in any infrastructure which would be considered a hard border between the island of ireland and northern ireland and then anglo-american it was also a similar thing and she. of course couldn't answer that straight because they taunt tons about because this whole area has not yet been agreed. and said you know the problem here is that you've got 2 positions of brics it and this good friday agreement and those 2 kind of clash and they have to come to a solution but she's clearly open to a solution and made that very clear to boris johnson but also on the issue made it clear about europe's position is ireland's position so.