The BCCG Regional Committee Northern Germany is pleased to invite you to a lunchtime round table on:

Britain and Germany’s Kensington Treaty

The Treaty’s Approach on Mutual Defence and Industrial Collaboration

Time for a Maritime Innovation and Defence Cluster?

Date: Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Time: 12:30 – 14:00 h CEST
Location: Anglo-German Club, Harvestehuder Weg 44, 20149 Hamburg

Price per meal (incl. wine and coffee):
BCCG Members: 50 €
Guests: 58 €

When placing your order, please make sure to include your full billing details, as your invoice will be generated based on this information.

The Kensington Treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Federal Republic of Germany on friendship and bilateral cooperation represents a landmark in post-Brexit UK–Germany relations, marking the first bilateral treaty of its kind since World War II. It significantly elevates defence and security integration – from high-end weapon systems and unmanned platforms to cyber resilience and transit planning – solidifying the UK and Germany as co-leads in European strategic autonomy and deterrence.
Under the previously agreed Trinity House Agreement (October 2024), the treaty builds further on deepened UK–Germany defence cooperation.

With two key-note speakers that look back on a long history of both, experience in the military space within NATO and relevant defence-industry aspects that play important roles for providing the means to deter and to defend, participants in the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany lunch-event will be able to hear ‘from the horse’s mouth’ how all the salient parts will have to fit together and what effects the Treaty will have on the UK’s and Germany’s industrial collaboration.

As keynote speakers we have been able to attract:

Dr. Moritz Brake, CEO of Nexmaris GmbH active in Maritime Consulting and Security

and

Lieutenant Colonel Richard AJ Sernberg, German Armed Forces Command and Staff College

Background Key-Note Speakers:

Dr. Moritz Brake is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) and a reserve officer in the German Navy. He received his PhD from the War Studies Department of King’s College London in July 2022 with a thesis on the German Navy as an instrument of foreign policy.
He is a member of the German Maritime Institute (DMI) and an auditor of the French Institut des Hautes Études de Défense National (IHEDN). In addition to a Master’s degree in War Studies from King’s College London, Brake holds a nautical patent and an engineering degree in nautical science from Jade University in Elsfleth, Germany.
In active naval service, he most recently served as a youth officer in public relations as a security policy advisor on behalf of the German government, and served in the UN mission UNIFIL (Eastern Mediterranean, Lebanon, 2007) and the EU anti-piracy mission ATALANTA in the Horn of Africa (2010 & 2011), in addition to seagoing service on merchant and warships.
With expertise in maritime security, industry and project management, Dr. Moritz Brake co-founded Nexmaris.EU – Maritime Resilience: Consulting, Security, and Beyond with Bertrand Mignot to meet the increased demand for maritime security consulting and product solutions in the changing security environment since the turn of the millennium. Moritz Brake is an honorary member and deputy spokesperson of the Leuchtfeuer Foundation Board. As a recognized provider of child and youth welfare services, the Leuchtfeuer Foundation is active for young people throughout Europe.
Dr. Moritz Brake discussed the protection of maritime infrastructures in the face of geopolitical threats at the German Security Conference 2025.

Lieutenant Colonel R A J Sernberg was commissioned into the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment in December 1995. He joined the 1st Battalion in Cambridge before the unit deployed to Ballykelly, Northern Ireland as the Province Reserve Battalion on Operation BANNER. Following the Platoon Commanders’ Battle Course he re-joined the Battalion and was deployed operationally regularly in West Tyrone, and in Armagh during the 1997 Marching Season.
Following posts as a Platoon Commander at the Army Foundation College, the Regimental Army Youth Team and another Op BANNER deployment he was employed as Regimental Signals Officer during a training year and subsequent deployment to Basra on Op TELIC. He then became a Platoon Commander at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
On promotion to Major he completed German Language Training in Mönchengladbach before attending the 5th Lehrgang General- Admiralstabsdienst National at the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr. Posted to 20 Armoured Brigade in Sennelager as SO2 J5 he deployed to Helmand, Afghanistan as SO2 J5 HQ Task Force Helmand and helped coordinate the Brigade’s contribution to the London Olympics in 2012. He took command of D Company, The Royal Welsh in Chester in late 2012 and subsequently acted as Senior Major during the Battalion’s merger before deploying as an Individual Augmentee to HQ COMBRITFOR in Kabul as SO2 J5. A final SO2 appointment saw Sernberg posted to the UK Very High Readiness deployable Operational level HQ, Joint Force Headquarters (JFHQ) in Northwood as SO2 J5. During this period he had specific responsibility for Libya planning.
Promoted to Lt Col in 2017 he moved to the UK Land Warfare Centre as SO1 Environmental Doctrine with a specific responsibility for Urban Operations Doctrine. He deployed again during this time to Kosovo as the JOC Director at HQ KFOR, Pristina. In 2020 he moved as SO1 Operations and Capability to the Overseas Bases Directorate, in Northwood. In 2022 he was posted back to Hamburg as the British Liaison Officer to the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr.

Participation notes:

The number of seats is restricted, registrations will be dealt with on a first come, first serve basis. Please register on Eventbrite by 17 October 2025. Free cancellations are only possible until 13 October 2025 and only in written form.

Please note that photographs and footage might be taken at this event, which will be used for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in our social media channel. Please contact us or the photographer, if you have any concerns or if you wish to be exempted from this.