PA Media/dpa
Washington
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the UK and US have come to a “strong position” in their quest for a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine following his meeting with President Joe Biden.
Starmer described his discussions with Biden as “long and productive”, but would not be drawn on what the pair had decided regarding Ukraine’s potential use of Western weaponry against Russian targets.
At the beginning of their meeting in the Blue Room at the White House in Washington DC on Friday, Biden said “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin” when asked about the Russian President’s threat of war with NATO.
Questioned on what they had decided in relation to Ukraine’s potential use of long-range missiles, Starmer told reporters: “We had a wide-ranging discussion about strategy in Ukraine, of course, in the Middle East and other parts of the world.
“This wasn’t a meeting about a particular capability. That wasn’t why we got our heads down today.
“It was to allow ourselves the space, which we took, the time, which we took, to have a strategic discussion so that tactical decisions could be seen within the wider strategy.
“It was a really good invitation from the President, we’ve had a very productive (meeting) and we’ve come to a strong position. I’m very pleased that we’ve had these discussions.” At the beginning of their talks, Starmer said the next weeks and months will be “crucial” in Ukraine and said it was “important” the two countries continued to support the eastern European nation in its fight against Russia.
The meeting comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his frustration at the continued restrictions on the use of Western weaponry against Russian targets.
In a lengthy statement posted on X, Zelensky said after meeting with Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his US counterpart Antony Blinken earlier, “there should be no unanswered questions about why Ukraine needs sufficient long-range capabilities”.
At the White House on Friday, Starmer told Biden: “Historically, we’ve shown the strength of our relationship.
“We are strategically aligned and we have a common cause on these global issues.” Starmer denied that the need to weaken Putin within months was because of the possibility of a victory for Donald Trump in November’s presidential election. Questioned on whether Trump’s potential victory was a factor, he told reporters: “No, I think if you look at both the Ukrainian situation and the Middle East, it is obvious that in the coming weeks and months there are really important potential developments, whatever timetables are going on in other countries.”
