Theresa May seeks special partnership for European Union's security

British Prime Minister Theresa May is calling on her country's European Union partners not to let "rigid institutional restrictions" get in the way of a wide-ranging post-Brexit security partnership and warning that there will be "damaging real-world consequences" if none is agreed.

May told the Munich Security Conference that "the UK is just as committed to Europe's security in the future as we have been in the past."

May said the challenge is to put together a "deep and special partnership" with the EU to retain cooperation.

She said: "This cannot be a time when any of us allow competition between partners, rigid institutional restrictions or deep-seated ideology to inhibit our cooperation and jeopardize the security of our citizens".

Britain is due to leave the EU in March 2019.

Germany's foreign minister says that as China's influence on the world stage rises, the U.S. and Europe need to return to historical bonds and work together or risk getting left behind.

Sigmar Gabriel told world leaders and defense officials at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that the US needs Europe as much as Europe needs the U.S. and said now is not the time for "just pursuing individual national interests."

He said that since World War II Germany benefited from a strong relationship with the US, learning democracy, multilateralism, international law and free trade principles from Washington.

Gabriel said "maybe this can explain why we Germans in particular are so perturbed when we look across the Atlantic because we no longer recognise our America.