LONDON — Keir Starmer signaled that the U.K. is ready to try again to forge closer defense ties with the European Union, after talks on British access to the SAFE loan program collapsed last year. 

Speaking on a visit to China, the prime minister said he was hoping to make “some progress” on spending, capability and co-operation between European countries and Britain, whether through Security Action for Europe (SAFE) or other initiatives.

“I have made the argument that that should require us to look at schemes like SAFE and others to see whether there is a way in which we can work more closely together,” he told reporters traveling with him to Beijing. 

Negotiations for Britain to take part in the EU’s loan initiative for defense procurement failed in November after a dispute about how much the U.K. would have to pay.

The failure to reach a deal has been a source of frustration to Labour figures in the U.K. and European allies who want to show the U.K. can achieve closer alignment with the bloc after Brexit.

The U.K. can, for now, ​​access SAFE as a third country, but is not entitled to fuller participation as was originally envisaged.

EU ambassador to Britain Pedro Serrano and British officials have both previously raised expectations that the U.K. could reach an agreement to be included in another round of SAFE, but there is not currently one under consideration. 

A European Commission spokesperson said: “We will not speculate on a possible second SAFE fund at this stage.”

Another avenue for closer cooperation could center on the EU’s €90 billion loan for Ukraine, which the Netherlands and many other countries would like to see the U.K. join.

London could also be asked to pay a fee to join the loan. France, with the support of other countries, last week suggested that third-party countries that take part should contribute.

They made the argument that since EU member countries pay interest on the loan it would be unfair if non-EU countries don’t pay anything, according to three EU diplomats. 

However, British officials said this idea was not under active discussion. A U.K government spokesperson said: “We do not comment on internal EU processes,” pointing out that the country has so far committed a total of £21.8 billion in support for Ukraine through military and fiscal assistance.

European Commissioners Maros Šefčovič and Valdis Dombrovskis are visiting London Monday for a series of meetings with British ministers, ahead of a planned second EU-U.K. summit later this year. Their talks this week are expected to focus on trade.

As he left China, Starmer told reporters that he wanted to “get closer” to the EU then he has currently set out, not only on defense and security but also energy, emissions and trade.

Referring to a second annual U.K.-EU summit planned later this spring, Starmer added: “We will not only follow up on the 10 strands that we set out at last year’s summit, we’ll also want to go closer with an iterative process.”

Jacopo Barigazzi and Jon Stone contributed to this report.