内容摘要："A trickle of trucks is woefully inadequate. Only the rapid, unimpeded, and sustained flow of aid can begin to address the full scope of needs on the ground," it said.

"A trickle of trucks is woefully inadequate. Only the rapid, unimpeded, and sustained flow of aid can begin to address the full scope of needs on the ground," it said.

In those long, drama-filled nights of 2020, when the then-prime minister Boris Johnson was negotiating Brexit, the possibility of a Security and Defence Partnership was discussed. But the UK's main priority was diverging from Brussels. So nothing was agreed – a notable omission, some think.Now a new UK-EU security pact has been worked on for months, the plan is for it to be the centrepiece of what's agreed.

Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, who is overseeing negotiations, was at the early talks at Lancaster House. "Our relationship has had some difficulties," she told me, but "considering what is going on in the world […] we need to move forward with this partnership."Yet some think the UK should not seize this outstretched hand."The cornerstone of our defence is Nato," Alex Burghart, a Conservative frontbencher, told the Commons this week. "We know of no reason why Nato is insufficient."

Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice has his own view. "There's no value at all," he argues. "We do not want to be constrained by a bungling top-down bureaucratic military structure. Our defence is guaranteed by Nato."The government fires back on that point, arguing that a partnership will in no way undermine Nato; rather it will complement it, they say, because it will stretch to areas beyond defence, like the security of our economies, infrastructure, energy supplies, even migration and transnational crime.

Some industry experts also believe that a security pact could boost the UK economy. Kevin Craven, chief executive of ADS Group, a UK trade association that represents aerospace, defence and security firms, is among them.

Take, for example, the SAFE (Security Action For Europe) programme that is being set up by the EU, aiming to provide up to €150bn (£126bn) in loans for new projects. If the UK strikes a security partnership with the EU, then British weapons manufacturers could potentially access some of that cash.The visit's optics were striking; the region's richest petrostates flaunted their opulence, revealing just how much of that fortune they were ready to deploy to strengthen ties with the US while advancing their own economic goals.

Before embarking on the trip, President Trump, who touts himself as a "dealmaker in chief" was clear that the main objective of the trip was to land investments worth billions of dollars. On the face of it, he succeeded.In Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reiterated a pledge to invest $600bn in US-Saudi partnerships. There were a plethora of deals announced as part of this, encompassing arms, artificial intelligence (AI), healthcare, infrastructure projects and science collaborations, and various security ties and initiatives.

The $142bn defence deal grabbed a lot of the attention as it was described by the White House as the largest arms deal ever.However, there remains some doubt as to whether those investment figures are realistic.