By William James and Elizabeth Piper
LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will on Sunday host leaders of Italy, Germany, Poland and other allies – possibly including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy – to discuss their response to Donald Trump’s push for peace in Ukraine.
The U.S. president has forced a radical rethink of European security, blindsiding leaders by telling them they must raise defence spending and take responsibility for their own security.
Sunday’s meeting will come shortly after Starmer returns from crunch talks with Trump on Thursday in Washington, where the British leader hopes his pledge to increase the defence budget will help preserve close ties between the two allies.
French President Emmanuel Macron met Trump earlier this week as part of European efforts to convince Trump not to rush a ceasefire deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, to keep Europe and Ukraine involved and to discuss military guarantees for Kyiv.
“I accept that European allies, the UK included, must do more and that means on capability, coordination and spend,” Starmer told reporters on his way to Washington.
“The coordination bit shouldn’t be overlooked. I was very struck by the lessons we have to learn from Ukraine about the way in which we need to coordinate better in terms of capability and supporting Ukraine.”
Starmer said on Tuesday that the weekend meeting in London would discuss “how we go forward together as allies in light of the situation that we face”. His spokesman said on Wednesday it was too early to say who would be coming to the summit.
European leaders, including Starmer, held an emergency meeting in Paris earlier this month where they discussed higher defence spending but were split on the idea of deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy told a press conference he would attend the meeting in London if a visit to Washington to meet Trump on Friday also went ahead.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he expected to join Starmer in London on Sunday. NATO chief Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are also among those expected to attend, while Dutch media reports said Prime Minister Dick Schoof would be there.
Trump has opened talks with Russia on a deal to end the war and starkly criticised Zelenskiy. In response, European leaders have stepped up diplomatic efforts to show a united front in support of Kyiv.
Nevertheless, tentative European plans for security guarantees to preserve any peace in Ukraine hinge on the United States being willing to provide an as-yet-undefined backstop to deter Russia from attacking again.
(Reporting by William James and Andrew MacAskill in London, Elizabeth Piper in Washington, additional reporting from European bureaux, editing by Christina Fincher and Gareth Jones)
