Trade and defence, including the future of Ukraine, will top the agenda for the UK PM’s first meeting with Donald Trump as president
Keir Starmer leaves the Downing Street briefing room in Westminster after delivering a statement on defence spending, February 25, 2025. Photograph: Leon Neal/PA Wire, he embarks on one of the most crucial diplomatic missions undertaken by a British prime minister in years. Wooing Trump on security and trade have emerged as imperatives for the success of his UK Labour government.
There had been nervousness in recent weeks in UK government circles about securing a meeting with Trump – Britain’s prime ministers have for decades been the first leaders from Europe to meet a newly minted US president, a demonstration of their much vaunted “special relationship”.
Only once leading up to his departure for Washington did the generally calm UK prime minister appear irritated by questioning about his US mission.– a key demand of Trump’s. It will be funded initially by cuts to foreign aid, which may also go down well with the US president.in disguise” because, the reporter suggested, the prime minister had stolen the Reform UK leader’s policy of boosting the military at the expense of foreign aid. Starmer’s face dropped and he looked annoyed.
The timing of Monday’s surprise UK move on defence spending was widely seen as an attempt by Starmer to gain the US president’s ear. Britain spends 2.3 per cent of GDP on defence, above the Nato minimum of 2 per cent but well below what Trump wants.
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