Keir Starmer co-chaired a meeting of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ and vowed that European leaders would work with the US to draw up crucial plans to defend Ukraine is a peace deal is reached
Keir Starmer hails positive talks on Ukraine in Washington D.C.
Keir Starmer has said European and US leaders are drawing up “robust” plans to defend Ukraine if a peace deal is reached.
The Prime Minister today headed a meeting of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’, with members agreeing to look at more sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s Russia. It comes after Donald Trump claimed he was now arranging face-to-face talks between the Russian tyrant and Ukraine’s Voloymyr Zelensky at an undisclosed location. The German Chancellor Freidrich Merz suggested the meeting could take place within the next two weeks.
European leaders have said there must be a strong security guarantee in place to prevent Putin’s forces regrouping and strinking again. Trump has ruled out putting US troops on the ground, but suggested he is willing to provide air cover.
A No10 spokesman said after today’s meeting: “The Prime Minister co-chaired a virtual meeting of the Coalition of the Willing this morning with over 30 international leaders to update on the talks in Washington last night.
“The Prime Minister began by reflecting on the constructive meeting, saying it was clear there was a real sense of unity and shared goal of securing a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. Turning to next steps, the Prime Minister outlined that Coalition of the Willing planning teams would meet with their US counterparts in the coming days to further strengthen plans to deliver robust security guarantees and prepare for the deployment of a reassurance force if the hostilities ended.
“The leaders also discussed how further pressure – including through sanctions – could be placed on Putin until he showed he was ready to take serious action to end his illegal invasion. The Prime Minister said he looked forward to updating the group again soon, as further work progressed in the coming days and weeks.”
In an interview with Fox News, the US President categorically ruled out sending US troops to Ukraine if a peace agreement is reached. He said: “(Ukraine) are not going to be a part of NATO but we’ve got the European nations, so they’ll front-load it and they’ll have – some of them, France and Germany, a couple of them, the UK – they are going to have boots on the ground.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, to be honest. I think Putin is tired of it, I think they are all tired of it, but you never know. We are going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks, that I can tell you.” Trump also conceded that a peace deal might not be achievable, saying: “It’s possible he doesn’t want to make a deal.”
Trump posted on social network Truth Social: “After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself.”
But as the talks wrapped up there were reports in Ukraine of the Kremlin launching a wave of missile and drone attacks, with explosions heard in the city of Kremenchuk.
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During the early hours of the morning, Mr Starmer told reporters from Washington DC there was a “real significant breakthrough when it comes to security guarantees”.
He said: “We’re now going to be working with the US on those security guarantees. We’ve tasked our teams, some of them are even arriving tomorrow, to start the detailed work on that.”
Mr Starmer added: “If you judge this on the outcomes of today, this is good, this is productive, and that’s my approach to these matters: roll your sleeves up, do the hard work, prepare for the right outcomes.
“Today I’m really pleased that in two material respects, we’ve had a breakthrough on security guarantees and real movement forward on the bilateral and trilateral meetings.”
But pressed on how he felt when he saw the Russian despot being given the red carpet treatment in Alaska on Friday, Mr Starmer told the BBC : “Well, I support President Trump’s efforts to bring about a lasting peace, outcome and peaceful settlement of this conflict. It’s been going on for over three years now.”
It also emerged Mr Starmer had interrupted his summer holiday for a second year in a row in order to jet across the Atlantic for emergency talks at the White House.
Labour minister Torsten Bell branded it an “occupational hazard” for Prime Ministers to have to change their holiday plans He told Sky News: “The Prime Minister is making a real difference in terms of these negotiations. It was absolutely the right thing to be in Washington.”