British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Washington on Wednesday following a substantial increase in the U.K.’s defense budget, part of a broader strategy to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to continue military aid for Ukraine. His visit comes amid intensified diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the ongoing conflict and the anticipation that Ukraine will soon be signing a major deal with Trump to help pay its debt to the United States.
Highlighting the deep-rooted alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom, Starmer is stepping into uncertain diplomatic territory with Trump, whose early foreign policy decisions have already challenged conventional U.S. approaches. His trip follows a similar effort by French President Emmanuel Macron, as European leaders push to keep Ukraine at the forefront of any discussions involving Russia, writes The Associated Press.
European countries are striving to bolster their collective defense as Trump transforms American foreign policy. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and complained that the U.S. provides security to European countries that don’t pull their weight.
Starmer told reporters aboard his plane that he’s confident Trump is committed to the NATO alliance and agrees “there’s only one aggressor (in Ukraine) and that’s Russia.”
Starmer announced Tuesday that the U.K. government will hike military spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027, years earlier than expected, and will aim to hit 3% by 2035. He called it the “biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War.”
The U.K.’s defense secretary, John Healey, said that “President Trump, over the last two weeks, has been very direct in his challenge” to European allies. “He’s reinforced the imperative and the importance of Britain making this commitment and helping other European countries to step up in a similar way,” Healey told the BBC.
Starmer’s relationship with Trump is complicated by his previous support for Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign, which some claimed was an illegal foreign contribution to the Democrats. Hoping to prevent Trump’s return to the White House, Starmer sent top adviser Deborah Mattinson to provide strategic insights to Harris’s campaign. Mattinson, a key figure in Starmer’s Labour Party victory, worked closely with Harris’s team to share lessons from Labour’s electoral strategy, particularly in winning back traditional voters.
As part of this diplomatic initiative, Starmer confirmed that the U.K. will host a summit of world leaders on Sunday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expected to attend. Meanwhile, Trump is scheduled to meet Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday to finalize what he has described as a significant agreement.
The Trump administration has been directly engaged in negotiations with Moscow regarding an end to the war, a move that has unsettled both Kyiv and its European allies. In response, Starmer has suggested deploying British troops to Ukraine as part of a European-led initiative to uphold a potential ceasefire. However, he acknowledged that any sustainable peace would still require American involvement.
“We will contribute our share, but U.S. support remains essential,” Starmer stated, emphasizing that without American backing, Russia would not be deterred from future aggression.
