Prime Minister Donald Tusk visits London for a political summit on the security of Europe and the war in Ukraine. The informal meeting of a dozen European leaders will focus on security and defence issues in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine. After the meeting, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced new support programmes for Ukraine and proposed a stabilising mission of British troops. 

Before the meeting, the new NATO head, Mark Rutte, announced that he would want to discuss three key points in London. Among them is the need to support Ukraine. As he said, “everyone in Europe will have to give more”. 

Secondly, according to Rutte, “everyone wants a lasting peace agreement for Ukraine today, and Europe is committed to this”. Thirdly, NATO’s head intends to ensure that Europe wants to maintain the strength of NATO and will, therefore, increase defence spending.

Before departing for London, Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk held a briefing for the media, during which he said it is a paradox that:

“500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend them against 140 million Russians. […] Europe today lacks the belief that we are truly a global force.”

Also, before the meeting started, the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has apologised to Baltic leaders for not inviting them to a summit in London, Lithuania’s public broadcaster reported, citing an adviser to the Lithuanian president. Starmer spoke to the leaders by phone, discussing transatlantic cooperation.

The Polish Prime Minister was welcomed by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Lancaster House. After the meeting, the Polish president held a press conference at the Polish embassy in London.

During the meeting, the UK Prime Minister informed the European leaders about the outcome of his meeting with US President Donald Trump and announced he would discuss a possible European military mission to protect the future peace in Ukraine. 

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer organised a special meeting in London with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The heads of state and government from Spain, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Romania are also present. Turkey is represented by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Council’s head, Antonio Costa, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also took part in the meeting. 

All participants of the London Summit were in favour of maintaining cooperation with the US at the highest possible level.

“The Polish position accurately reflected the mood in the room, and on these most important issues everyone more or less has a similar position – Ukraine requires continued support and as strong a position as possible before negotiations with Russia. No one doubts who is the aggressor, who is the victim and on whose side Europe stands in this conflict, obviously on the side of Ukraine,” Prime Minister Tusk commented. 

“Everyone without exception would like the transatlantic realities to be as strong as possible. Poland, for obvious reasons, is most interested in this, to make Europe stronger, able to act defensively, to deter Russia from a possible attack, but at the same time to act for transatlantic ties,” the Polish Prime Minister said during a press conference at Poland’s Embassy in London.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that now Paris and London will cooperate to prepare Ukraine for a just peace. 

“We will form a coalition of willing countries to defend adherence to this agreement and guarantee peace if a truce is declared in Ukraine; the UK is ready to support this effort by sending troops and aircraft to Ukraine,” British PM Keir Starmer said.

He pointed out that Europe must take the burden of this endeavour, but it must have strong support from the United States.

Some commentators noticed that when asked by the press, Donald Tusk avoided many direct answers about the possible UK and Frances’ leadership in Europe on this key issue. PM Tusk only replied that “there will be no leaders”. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Starmer, when asked the same question, replied that the UK will take this role, highlighting its experience in such matters.

Source: PAP

Photo:@donaldtusk

Tomasz Modrzejewski