Possible security pact overshadowed by need to settle EU-UK dispute over fishing rights

Keir Starmer’s hopes for a defence and security pact risk being stalled over fishing rights, as he heads to Brussels for the first post-Brexit meeting of its kind on Monday.

The prime minister has been invited to join the EU’s 27 heads of state and government for dinner in Brussels to discuss EU-UK defence, a subject that has gained urgency following Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Belgium leads calls for suspension of agreement after Rwanda-backed rebels captured city of Goma

The EU is under mounting pressure to suspend a controversial minerals deal with Rwanda that has been blamed for fuelling the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Calls to freeze the agreement have grown after fighters from the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group captured the city of Goma in the eastern DRC, escalating a decades-old conflict and raising fears of a regional war.