Starmer meeting Trump for White House talks on Ukraine, trade and technology
The Prime Minister is prepared to commit British troops to a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine but is seeking US support.
Sir Keir Starmer is in the White House for crunch talks with Donald Trump on Ukraine, trade and technology.
The Prime Minister will push a reluctant Mr Trump to provide a US “backstop”, possibly including fighter jets providing air cover, to prevent Vladimir Putin launching a fresh assault on Ukraine after any peace deal.
The US President said he would not provide security guarantees “beyond very much”, insisting it was for Europeans to protect Ukraine.
Sir Keir is prepared to commit British troops to a peacekeeping mission but believes that US promises are vital to “deter Putin from coming again”.
As he arrived on Thursday afternoon, Mr Trump greeted Sir Keir at the White House with a warm handshake.
The US President said “yes we can” when asked if a peace deal could be achieved in Ukraine, and the pair then headed inside followed by Foreign Secretary David Lammy and the UK’s ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson.
Ahead of his talks at the White House on Thursday, Sir Keir said Mr Trump can be trusted and understands that Russian President Mr Putin started the war in Ukraine.
The Prime Minister will hope the promise to increase defence spending to a 2.5% share of the economy from April 2027 helps persuade Mr Trump that European nations are serious about the security of their continent.
But a senior Trump administration official said while that was welcome, “President Trump does continue to urge our Nato allies to increase their spending even further toward 5%”.
“We appreciate Prime Minister Starmer’s leadership, also in his recent discussions committing British troops to help enforce peace once a deal is reached,” the official said.
Sir Keir wants to act as a bridge between the US and European continental allies, and said he had been having “really intense discussions with our European partners, with Nato, with Ukraine, and obviously with US teams as well”.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders will meet for talks hosted by Sir Keir on Sunday following separate White House visits by both the Prime Minister and Ukrainian president.
The looming imposition of US tariffs on imports of British steel could also be a tricky topic for the talks.
Asked if he was confident the UK will be exempted from tariffs, Sir Keir said “I’m not going to get ahead of our discussions”, but he stressed that British trade with the US was “pretty balanced”.
The UK’s ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson has also said there is no need for a “fight” over trade.
Downing Street hopes the talks with Mr Trump will focus on cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence partnerships.
UK sources have compared the ambition to the space programme “moonshot” or a peacetime equivalent of the Manhattan Project which saw American and British expertise work on the atomic bomb.
