What was discussed by the British Prime Minister Starmer and Trump in Washington
Following France President, Emmanuel Macron, to convince the owner of the White House Donald Trump of the need to support Europe in its peacekeeping mission in Ukraine was tried by British Prime Minister Cyrus Starmer, who visited Washington on February 27. As in the case of the head of the Champs Elysees, the communication of the American leader with the British prime minister was extremely friendly and positive. But again, it did not lead to the results that were counted on in London, but earlier in Paris. The American president did not give any guarantees that Washington would support his overseas partners in the event of unforeseen problems of European military in Ukrainian territory.
The outgoing week has become a time of Europeans active attempts to find a compromise with the United States in the approach to resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and, most importantly, to enlist the support of American allies in the event of an arrest of military Europe in Ukraine. The first attempt to convince Donald Trump that Europe can help achieve a sustainable world in Ukraine only with the help of the United States, I did it Emmanuel Macron, who visited the White House on February 24. The meeting of the leaders of the States and France took place in a fairly warm atmosphere, but Macron could not leave home with any significant agreements.
On February 27, British Prime Minister Cyrus Starmer decided to try his luck in Washington. In an effort to place the interlocutor from the threshold, at the very beginning of the meeting, he handed over to Donald Trump an invitation from King Charles III to visit Britain on a state visit, that is, to visit the kingdom in the highest category that the Buckingham palace could offer. And this turned out to be an unprecedented step: no one except Donald Trump, adopted with the State University in his first period in 2019, was honored for such an honor for the second time.
Continuing the courtesy, Prime Minister Starmer thanked Donald Trump for the “Possibility of a peace agreement” that appeared, expressing the confidence that Europe, together with the United States, will be able to achieve a sustainable peace in Ukraine.
Recall that in order to guarantee a strong truce and protection of Ukrainian infrastructure, London and Paris prepared a plan for creating a peacekeeping mission of 30 thousand European military personnel. But at the same time, they decided to get “limited military assistance” from the United States if peacekeeping forces are in danger. In particular, according to data The Wall Street Journalwe are talking about air support by American aviation located outside Ukraine.
Against this background, the question of what guarantees the Americans are ready to give, expectedly remained in the spotlight of journalists both before the negotiations and after their completion. However, Donald Trump each time left a direct answer, in fact only confirming his reluctance to promise Europeans.
Security guarantees are “this is a simple question”, and a truly difficult task is to achieve a ceasefire, the head of the White House repeatedly repeated.
“I do not want to talk about the second stage until the first came. And the first stage is the conclusion of the world. And we must make Russia agree. We must force Ukraine to agree. And I think we will do it, ”the American president masterfully led the conversation away from the topic of US guarantees.
And even when Mr. Trump was asked a specific question – whether the United States would protect British troops if they are faced with a threat, being in Ukraine, the American leader with a slight smile on his face assured that British troops, as a rule, did not need help. “The British have always been incredible soldiers, incredible military personnel, and they can take care of themselves. But if they need help, I will always be with the British. I will always be with them. But they do not need help, ”he said.
Cyrus Starmer did not argue with the assessment of the American president, but immediately made a reservation that « if necessary, we always cover each other. » After that, Donald Trump, considering that the topic was not exhausted, turned to the British prime minister with the question: « Could you deal with Russia yourself? » What to answer this, the British leader was not found and only laughed back.
Summing up a certain result of security, Trump stated that he considers unlikely the need to use the 5th article by NATO, which implies collective protection in attacking one of the alliance member countries if the peacekeeping mission is attacked in Ukraine. “I do not think that we will have any reasons for this,” the US president noted.
Having not obtained from his interlocutor any clear guarantees of the involvement of the American military in support of the European contingent in Ukraine, Cyrus Starmer was also forced to answer specific questions as uncontrolled as possible. Answering whether he received a positive response to a request for assistance from the United States, he repeated the previously published assessment of negotiations that they were “productive”. “The president says that first you need to conclude a peace agreement. Our teams will discuss how to ensure that the agreement is reached and turned out to be long -term, ”the British prime minister said.
Commenting on the probability of sending British military personnel and aviation to Ukraine without the help of the United States, Cyrus Starmer announced the need to increase European efforts to ensure security.
He assured that Britain, together with the allies, was ready to « fully contribute to the onset of a sustainable world. »
From the very beginning, Donald Trump argued that the burden of responsibility for the security of Ukraine should take on Europeans. And later, the thought previously declared by his associates was adopted: the agreement of Kyiv and Washington on rare -earth metals, which the parties managed to agree this week and which Trump was about to sign with President Vladimir Zelensky on February 28, inherently implies “automatic security”, because the Americans will “be on Earth” and are ready to protect their investments.
Already on March 2, Cyrus Starmer intends to collect in London the third in the last month of the Summit of European leaders to discuss guarantees of security for Ukraine and provide it with further assistance. On it, he promised to hold a kind of briefing for 18 invited to the European colleagues, following the results of his meeting with the US president.
