Starmer's uphill battle to form a "coalition of the willing"
“What are they thinking?”, declared Donald Trump on Truth Social this evening, as he laid into European leaders present at Starmer’s summit yesterday for having "stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the US".
"Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia," wrote Trump in a post in which he again accused Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky of standing in the way of peace negotiations: "America will not put up with it for much longer… This guy doesn't want there to be peace as long as he has America's backing”
All comments which make Keir Starmer’s job even harder as he seeks to repair fractures with Washington while taking a leading role in obtaining security guarantees for Kyiv.
Speaking in the Commons hours earlier, Starmer had urged MPs to accept that Britain must strengthen its relationship with America - a country that remains "vital in securing the peace we all want to see". As for the US president’s commitment to achieving said peace in Ukraine, “nobody in this House should doubt for a second it is sincere," he insisted.
The PM was laying out his plan for achieving a lasting peace in Ukraine - a plan formed at the European leaders summit he hosted yesterday, the same gathering Trump has just berated. The plan was expected to be presented to the US president in the coming days.
While there are various components to it, such as keeping military aid flowing to Kyiv and ensuring Ukraine has a seat at the table of any negotiations, the one generating the most attention is the proposal for a “coalition of the willing” to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine to ensure any ceasefire holds.
Starmer confirmed today that any deployment of British peacekeeping troops to Ukraine would be put to MPs first. He also conceded that not every European country takes the same view on this proposed peacekeeping force.
Donald Trump has certainly concentrated the mind of Kyiv’s European allies. We are witnessing the "awakening of a whole section of Europeans” who, up until now, “refused to see the reality of things", declared France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot today. Yet, when it comes to deciding on a collective path forwards, European unity will not be straight forward.
Starmer claims that the idea of sending troops to Ukraine has the backing of several parties though France is the only other country to confirm it would join a “coalition of the willing”.
The Baltic states - Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia - are likely to be amongst the backers. Denmark, Sweden and Canada have also signalled openness to the suggestion.
Poland – which has long been one of Kyiv's most vocal supporters – has already ruled out sending soldiers but says it would support those who do with logistical support.
Italy’s stance is unclear. “The only thing that we really cannot afford is a peace that does not remain”, said Giorgia Meloni yesterday at Starmer’s summit, adding that a division of the West would be “fatal for everyone”. However, there are reports that Meloni clashed with Macron over the idea of a peacekeeping force last week.
Spain's position is non-commital, with its foreign ministry simply saying that it is "too early at the moment to talk about deploying troops in Ukraine".
Starmer’s decision to characterise a potential peacekeeping force as a “coalition of the willing” is intriguing. It has not gone unnoticed that the same term was once employed by the US to describe the countries, Britain included, that agreed to join its invasion of Iraq.
Given that this intervention ended in disaster, it is in some respects a strange move to revive the phrase. Though it’s perhaps a way of making a point to Washington: we came to your aid, now it’s time to return the favour. Whatever the logic, Trump is clearly far from won over.
Caitlin Allen
Deputy Editor
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