UK PM heads to US hoping to 'bridge' Trump-Europe divide over Ukraine

LONDON — UK leader Keir Starmer makes a high-stakes visit to the White House on Thursday to try to convince US President Donald Trump to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any ceasefire agreement with Russia.

The British prime minister will seek to build on French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Washington on Monday, when he warned that peace cannot mean the "surrender" of Ukraine.

But the French leader said his talks with Trump on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine had shown a path forward despite fears of a transatlantic rift.

Starmer in turn will try to perform a diplomatic high-wire act by sticking up for Kyiv without annoying Trump, who has stunned Europe by pursuing talks with President Vladimir Putin's Russian administration.

"Starmer will be very reluctant to publicly critique Trump's stance but he will have to find ways to diplomatically do so, for the sake of Ukraine," said Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group think-tank.

Top of Starmer's wish list is securing assurances from Trump that the US will provide a so-called backstop, possibly in the form of air cover, intelligence and logistics, to support any European troops sent to Ukraine to monitor a ceasefire.

London and Paris are spearheading proposals to send a European "reassurance force" of fewer than 30,000 soldiers to protect Ukraine in the event the war ends.

Vital 'backup'

Macron said Trump had "good reason" to re-engage with Putin, but said it was critical for Washington to offer "backup" for any European peacekeeping force.

Although the Trump administration has ruled out committing US soldiers, Starmer has insisted a US "backstop" is vital to deter Russia from "launching another invasion in just a few years' time".

Starmer will tell his counterpart that Ukraine must be involved in negotiations to end the conflict, after Washington shocked Europe this month by holding discussions with Moscow alone.

The UK premier has already sought to appease Trump by publicly stating his willingness to send British peacekeepers to Ukraine to monitor any truce, while France has pledged the same.

Starmer will also be hoping that his announcement Tuesday that UK defence spending will rise from 2.3 percent to 2.5 percent by 2027 will please Trump, with the US president regularly saying European countries should be paying more towards NATO.

Unlike other European leaders, Starmer has been at pains to avoid publicly disagreeing with Trump.

That stance has been tested though, notably last week when he rejected Trump's claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was a "dictator".

 'Bridge'

Trump insists he wants peace and has accused both Macron and Starmer of doing "nothing" to end the Ukraine war over the past three years.

Britain's prime minister hopes to act as a "bridge" between America and Europe, but Trump's unpredictability will make for a nervy meeting in the Oval office.

Their polar opposite personalities may also complicate matters. While Trump is a brash, convention-breaking unilateralist, Starmer is a cautious former human rights lawyer who reveres multilateral institutions.

The meeting also comes with tensions over US steel tariffs and Starmer's controversial decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and pay to lease a strategic UK-US military base there.

"The biggest risk is that Trump continues to berate Ukraine and Europe and maybe even the UK, embarrassing Starmer and damaging the UK's credibility," Aspinall said.

Kim Darroch, a former UK ambassador to Washington, said Starmer should play to Trump's ego and insist on the legacy he could have.

"If I were Starmer, I would say to Trump that this is your chance for your place in history," Darroch told BBC radio last week.

"But it has to be a fair deal. If it's a bad deal, you are not going to get that praise, you are going to get a load of criticism and that will be your record in the history books," he said.

Richard Whitman, a UK foreign policy expert, said he thought the best Starmer could do was "play for time".

"We know that Trump is inconsistent and we know that it's perfectly possible his position on Ukraine might change when he finds it really difficult to get a peace deal out of Putin," he told AFP.