US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet at the White House on Friday, the first in-person visit by a British leader since the Republican leader reversed US policy on Ukraine, the Middle East and global trade.
Starmer is the second European leader to meet with Trump this week, after French President Emmanuel Macron met with the US president on Monday.
Trump, who took office on January 20, has shocked Europe, a traditional US ally, by moving closer to Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator.
Zelensky is expected to be in Washington on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal with Trump, a deal the Ukrainian leader has said will depend on further US aid. Trump sees the deal as a payback for US money spent supporting Ukraine.
Starmer on Wednesday called on the United States to create a “security buffer” for all European forces participating in a potential peacekeeping role in Ukraine, saying that would offer Kiev a lasting peace, not a temporary pause in violence.
The US president said that Europe would provide support and security guarantees to Kiev if peace talks with Russia were successful, Reuters reports.
