Prime Minister holds first official bilateral talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at NATO summit in Washington
The new government will stick to plans to spend at least £3 billion a year on military support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes” in its conflict with Russia, Keir Starmer has said.
After his first official bilateral talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Washington, the Prime Minister confirmed that military aid would continue until at least 2030-31.
To date, the United Kingdom has pledged nearly £12 billion to support Ukraine since February 2022, of which £7.1 billion is for military aid. The rest is for humanitarian and economic support.
During his talks with Zelenskyy, Starmer emphasized that Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to NATO membership. However, diplomats at the NATO summit say that setting any firm timetable would be a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday, the prime minister will tell his fellow leaders this: “NATO was founded by the generation that defeated fascism. They understood not only the value of our strength, but also the value of our values.
“These values are under threat again. Putin needs to hear a clear message coming out of this summit – a message of unity and determination that we will stand by Ukraine with all means necessary and for as long as it takes to protect our shared values and our common security.”
At the summit, Starmer met with U.S. President Joe Biden for the first time. Photo: Shawn Thew/EPA
British officials said that despite the potential return to the White House of Donald Trump, whose commitment to NATO and Ukraine remains unclear, they are focused on getting the alliance in the best shape possible, regardless of who wins the US election.
Starmer called on NATO allies to increase defense spending in response to rising global threats, including from Russia, as he unveiled an overview of the UK’s plans to spend tens of billions of pounds more on the military.
He will tell the other 31 NATO countries that the front line of defense in the Euro-Atlantic region is in the Ukrainian trenches, and that the international community cannot waver in the face of unrelenting Russian aggression.
One of Kyiv’s most urgent requests from NATO is for multi-year funding to allow it to plan its defense against Russian forces. The UK will deliver a new package of artillery and 90 Brimstone missiles in the coming weeks.
Next week, the government will launch a strategic defense review, but it is likely to take up to a year, meaning that Starmer is under increasing pressure to confirm a timetable for increasing UK defense spending to the 2.5% of GDP target.
However, Luke Pollard, the Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, said on Wednesday that the government will not increase spending on the military if it cannot ensure economic growth.
“The way to increase public spending on defense, on schools, hospitals or prisons is through the growth of our economy,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
“If we don’t grow our economy, we won’t have the money to support the public services and ambitions we have – and that includes defense.”
A senior G10 source suggested that the 2.5% commitment would remain in place regardless of whether the new government meets its growth targets, and even if it raises difficult questions about how it will be funded.
“Yes, of course,” they said. “The commitment to defense is absolute. But we are also confident that we will get growth in the economy, so I don’t agree that we should wait for one or the other.”
Downing Street could not confirm whether the Strategic Defense Review would be published before the Comprehensive Spending Review, expected this fall, but suggested it would not take a full year.
Starmer first met Joe Biden at an event on the sidelines of the NATO summit. They exchanged a few words in private, shaking hands in front of the cameras. Later, Starmer held his first bilateral talks with the US president at the White House.
The prime minister, a passionate soccer fan, presented the president with an Arsenal shirt with the name “Biden” and the number 46 on the back, a reference to his status as the 46th president of the United States. “It’s [Starmer’s] team, and [he] thought it would be a personal gift,” said a senior official at No. 10.
Earlier, he presented Emmanuel Macron, the French president, with an Arsenal shirt. He also presented Biden with a framed copy of the original Atlantic Charter that led to the creation of NATO, as amended by then-Labor Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
