WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit the White House on Thursday in an effort to convince President Donald Trump that Ukraine and European leaders need a place at the table as the U.S. negotiates an end to the yearslong Russia-Ukraine war.
The meeting follows a visit from French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, reflecting a mounting concern felt by much of Europe that Trump’s aggressive push to end the war in Ukraine signals his willingness to concede too much to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Macron called his meeting with Trump a “turning point,” but no deal to end the war in Ukraine has been reached.
Keir Starmer to raise British defense budget
Trump has been calling for the U.K. and European nations to increase their spending as the U.S. has provided billions to Ukraine in military aid.
Starmer on Tuesday pledged to increase the U.K. defense budget to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 in hopes of persuading Trump to maintain U.S. support for Ukraine and the NATO alliance.
The U.K. currently spends 2.3% of GDP on defense, and the government had previously set a 2.5% target without setting a date.
Starmer told lawmakers the increase amounts to an additional 13.4 billion pounds ($17 billion) annually. He said the goal is for defense spending to increase to 3% of GDP by 2035.
Marco Rubio: US-Ukraine rare minerals deal a ‘tush push’ away
Trump has announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also visit the White House on Friday to sign a deal on rare earth minerals. Details of the agreement are vague, but what is known is that the U.S. is requesting revenue from Ukraine’s rare minerals, which are used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries.
Trump believes this is a way for the U.S. to recoup its investment in Ukrainian defense efforts.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the deal is a “tush push” away — a reference to the Philadelphia Eagles’ signature tush-push strategy.
Trump floats post-war meeting with Russia’s Putin
Relations between the U.S. and Russia have grown closer since a meeting earlier this month in Saudi Arabia in which both nations agreed to cooperate beyond the war.
Senior Russian and U.S. diplomats are meeting in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss their embassies’ operations and work toward normalizing diplomatic relations.
Trump has suggested a potential face-to-face meeting with Putin in Russia after the war in Ukraine ends to discuss a potential peace deal, though he did not specify concessions.
NewsNation’s Libbey Dean and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
