British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit the White House on Thursday to try to convince President Donald Trump that a lasting peace in Ukraine will endure only if Kyiv and European leaders are at the table as negotiations move forward with Moscow.
Starmer’s trip, coming a few days after French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron’s own visit, reflects the mounting concern felt by much of Europe that Trump’s aggressive push to find an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine signals his willingness to concede too much to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We’re going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides,” Trump said Wednesday as he held the first Cabinet meeting of his second term. “For Ukraine, we’re going to try very hard to make a good deal so that they can get as much (land) back as possible.”
But the president’s rapprochement with Russia has unsettled America’s historic allies in Europe, who have found themselves on their heels with Trump returning to the White House with a determination to dramatically make over U.S. foreign policy to correspond with his “America First” world view.
The Trump administration held talks last week with Russia without Ukrainian or other European allies represented. And this week this U.S. refused to sign on to resolutions at the U.N. blaming Russia for the war. The drifting White House view of Ukraine under Trump is leading to a tectonic shift in transatlantic relations.
But the administration is pushing back on the notion that Trump is ignoring Europe or that Trump is too eager in his push for settlement talks with Putin.
“He hasn’t conceded anything to anyone,” Vice President JD Vance said. “He’s doing the job of a diplomat.”
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Trump’s meeting with Starmer comes a day before he is to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In that meeting Friday, the two are expected to sign off on a contentious agreement that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals, which are used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries. Zelenskyy had chafed at signing off on an agreement without specific security guarantees from the U.S.
But Trump, in announcing plans for the leaders to sign the agreement, was noncommittal about any coming American security guarantees.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees ... very much,” Trump said. “We’re going to have Europe do that.”
Indeed, if a truce can be reached, Starmer and Macron have agreed to dispatch troops for a potential peacekeeping mission to Ukraine to ensure that fighting between Ukraine and Russia doesn’t flare up again.
The British prime minister confirmed Wednesday that he will host a meeting of international leaders in the U.K. on Sunday, focused on Ukraine. Zelenskyy is expected to attend.
Starmer also announced plans this week for the U.K. to bolster defense spending — an issue that should sit well with Trump, who has been critical that European allies are spending too little on defense.
The U.K. government will boost military spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027, years earlier than expected, and will aim to hit 3% by 2035.
Beyond the war in Ukraine, Starmer said the talks will home in on “a stable economy, secure borders and national security,” as well as cooperation on AI and other cutting-edge technology.
He’ll stress that Europe must “play its part on global defense and step up for the good of collective European security.”
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“The world is becoming ever more dangerous, and it is more important than ever that we are united with our allies,” Starmer said. “There are huge opportunities for us to deepen our special relationship, deliver growth and security, and improve the lives of working people in both our great nations.”
Starmer is also keen to discuss “the opportunities that further technology and AI partnerships could deliver,” his office said, including ambitious but vague “shared moonshot missions across top technologies including quantum and AI, and a deeper partnership on space.”
Britain has signaled it aims to eschew the European Union’s high-regulation approach to AI as it seeks to become a leader in the field.
The U.K. joined the U.S. in refusing to sign a joint declaration at an artificial intelligence summit hosted by Macron in Paris this month in what was seen as an attempt to curry favor with Washington and seek investment from American tech firms. Starmer’s office said the prime minister “will make the case for further integration between the two countries’ tech sectors to make them the most efficient, ambitious technology sectors in the world.”