This is ahead of the Prime Minister's visit to Washington next week to meet with President Donald Trump, where the PM is expected to use the occasion to personally deliver an invitation for a state visit, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
Starmer to announce Ukraine aid and defense boost ahead of Trump visit
Photo credit: britannica.com
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Keir Starmer is reportedly set to unveil a new package of support for Kyiv on Monday, which will include new sanctions and a roadmap to increase UK defense spending.
The Prime Minister will have to walk a tricky line when he meets Mr Trump, balancing the UK's support for Ukraine with the need to keep the US onside.
The US president has started negotiations with Russia on ending the conflict, but excluded Kyiv from the talks – and a deepening rift has emerged between him and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as the two have traded barbs.
Washington has also put pressure on the UK and its allies to do more to shoulder the burden of European defence.
In an effort to ease tensions, Sir Keir is expected during the trip to finally set a date, likely 2030, for the UK to reach its goal of spending 2.5% of GDP, The Telegraph reported. This is up from the current 2.3%.
The Prime Minister will also deliver an invitation from the King for a state visit to the UK, according to the newspaper.
The US president is known to admire the royal family.
Sir Keir's trip to Washington will come after Ukraine marks three years since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
His trip to see the US President will also come after a visit to Washington by Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Trump said Sir Keir and the French president "haven't done anything" to end the war in Ukraine in the last three years.
"They didn't do anything either (to end the war). The war's going on, no meetings with Russia, no nothing.
"They haven't done anything. Macron is a friend of mine, and I've met with the Prime Minister and he's a very nice guy (but) nobody's done anything," he told a Fox News podcast released Friday.
Mr Macron has said he intends to tell his American counterpart not to "be weak" in the face of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Sir Keir is also facing pressure to take a firm line when he meets Mr Trump.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey accused Mr Trump of plotting a "stitch-up" with Mr Putin that "amounts to a betrayal of Ukraine", and urged the Prime Minister to speak "honestly and openly" with him.
Sir Ed added: "I think we're all astonished and deeply alarmed, and if the British Prime Minister doesn't reflect that, he's not reflecting the views of the British people."
But senior Cabinet minister Pat McFadden stressed the importance of maintaining a "good and constructive relationship" with the White House.
"I think the UK is potentially in a good position with this administration, if we handle it correctly.
"Handling it correctly doesn't mean following every twist and turn of every comment, but is focusing on what will actually happen as well as what was said," he said at a fringe event at the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow on Friday.
The growing rift between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky presents a challenge for the Prime Minister.
The US leader previously described Mr Zelensky as a "dictator".
The Ukrainian president then claimed Mr Trump was living in a Russian "disinformation space", which led White House officials to accuse Mr Zelensky of "insulting" his counterpart.
The Americans also cancelled a planned joint press conference in Kyiv, in a sign of a deepening feud between the two countries.
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