Three key points Sir Keir could throw at Trump in Ukraine talks next week

Next week, Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump will sit down together for only the second time.

The first was a dinner at Trump Tower in September alongside Foreign Secretary David Lammy – a meeting that seemed, by most accounts, to go down well.

But Trump was only a candidate then. Now he’s president, and the time for cordial getting-to-know-you sessions is firmly over.

Past meetings between British prime ministers and US presidents have often focused on reaffirming the so-called ‘special relationship’ and discussing economic ties.

Sir Keir has a very different job to do this time, in very different times with a very different kind of leader.

When the doors close to the Oval Office and the two men are alone, the camera-ready smiles will likely fade as the PM begins the delicate dance of winning over Trump without winding him up.

The stakes, both for the UK and Europe, appear to be quite high with the president’s push for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine top of the agenda.

Here are some of the key points Sir Keir might want to raise.

‘No talks about Ukraine without Ukraine’

Trump’s approach to achieving peace so far has sidelined European leaders and, to a large extent, even Ukraine itself.

Today, officials from the US government have been meeting with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia to discuss whether there’s room to begin talks.

Ukraine was not present, after President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had been told about the plans too late.

Since Trump revealed last Wednesday he had spoken to Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the phone, the UK government’s line has been that there can be no talks about the future of Ukraine without Ukraine.

Sir Keir might choose to push that sentiment next week.

‘We need the US to provide a backstop’

In a speech last night following crisis talks in Paris, the PM said the Washington meeting will allow them to ‘discuss what we see as the key elements of a lasting peace’.

However, European leaders will also be expecting him to press their view on the terms of peace in Ukraine.

That will likely include the need for a ‘US backstop’, which Sir Keir mooted in his speech last night.

He said a ‘US security guarantee was the only way to effectively deter Russia’ from further attacks on Ukraine.

At an event with the Institute for Government today, Defence Secretary John Healey hammered home how essential the role of the US is in keeping Europe safe.

He told the audience: ‘It is only the US that can provide the deterrent to Putin that will prevent him attacking again.’

‘Europe can play a prominent role in peace’

Fred Fleitz, an aide to Trump during his first term in office, told Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday’s meeting in Paris seemed to be a case of ‘FOMO’ – or ‘fear of missing out’ among European leaders.

He was suggesting they can’t accept that the president and Russia are planning to sort it all out without getting them involved.

But the PM may want to argue that Europe still has an important role to play in securing peace, especially if – as Trump has suggested – it’ll be European troops who will be put on the ground in Ukraine.

One challenge with this might be a lack of agreement on some key points among the leaders.

While Sir Keir and French President Emmanuel Macron have both said they were prepared to send soldiers over as part of a deal, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said such discussions were ‘completely premature’.

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