WASHINGTON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to address the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and bilateral trade ties, amid the U.S. leader’s tariff threats on Europe and demands that the continent rely less on Washington for its security.
Ahead of their meeting, Trump, who wants NATO members to boost defense spending to 5% of their Gross Domestic Product, reiterated his stance that Europe should “step up.” He told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that American taxpayers “shouldn’t be footing the bill than – more than the Europeans are paying.”
In what appears to be a move to appease Trump, on Tuesday, Starmer announced an unexpected increase in the U.K. defense budget to 2.5% of the nation’s GDP by 2027, then to 2.6% the following year.
“This week when I meet President Trump, I will be clear: I want this relationship to go from strength to strength,” Starmer told members of the British Parliament, underscoring what he calls his country’s “most important bilateral alliance,” with the U.S.
Starmer told reporters Tuesday that the increase in defense spending was “three years in the making,” following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The increase will be funded by cutting Britain’s already depleted foreign aid budget to just 0.3% of the country’s GDP.
He acknowledged that the decision to ramp up defense spending was “accelerated” as Trump moves to negotiate with Moscow without the involvement of Ukraine or Europeans and made clear he is reducing U.S. support for Europe’s security.
“President Trump thinks we should do more, and I agree with him. It chimes with my thinking on this,” Starmer said. He said he also aims to further increase defense spending to 3% in the next Parliament, which will begin in 2029 at the latest after the next general election.
A key message for Starmer to reinforce is that Europeans must be part of any discussions on Ukraine, said Gesine Weber, a fellow on the German Marshall Fund’s Geostrategy team.
“Because it would be very odd to have a situation where you have the burden shift to Europeans, but not the strategic responsibility and the strategic reflections,” she told VOA.
In 2023, the U.S. spent 3.4% of its GDP on defense, according to U.S. government data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Insititute.
European peacekeeping
Starmer’s meeting comes on the heels of Emmanuel Macron’s White House visit on Monday. The French president has proposed creating a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine as a security guarantee against future Russian aggression, a plan endorsed by Starmer.
Under this scenario, the United States “would do less in normal times, but be available as sort of a backstop,” when a crisis breaks, said Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.
It remains to be seen whether the plan will come to fruition considering the various interests within NATO and European Union, O’Hanlon told VOA.
“The most important thing, do these guys get along? Do they have a common vision?” he said of Trump and Starmer, because that could signal the emergence of a Western strategy to end the war with NATO’s support.
“If that’s the case, then we’re in a good position to try to promote a negotiation between Russia and Ukraine,” he added.
On Wednesday Trump signaled Ukraine should “forget about” a path toward NATO membership and that it should not expect much from Washington.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much — we’re going to have Europe do that because we’re talking about Europe is their next-door neighbor.”
Aside from negotiating with Moscow, Trump is also pushing Kyiv for a deal that would allow American access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and recoup funds given by the Biden administration to support the country’s war efforts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet Trump at the White House on Friday.
Tariff threats
The visit is a challenge for Starmer as he seeks to balance the U.K.’s interests with those of its European allies while engaging with an unpredictable U.S. administration.
He is keen to secure favorable terms amid potential U.S. tariffs that could impact British exports as the U.S. hits European countries with 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum. Trump is threatening more, saying the European Union has been “very unfair” to America.
Starmer is “in a bit delicate position” as the U.K. is not part of the European Union single market, said GMF’s Weber.
“So for him, the question is basically averting the situation where there are U.S. tariffs and of course also trying to appease Washington in that regard, while he’s also not going on a super confrontational line with the European Union,” she said.
British finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday she was confident that U.S.-U.K. trade and investment would not be derailed amid Trump’s tariff threats.
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