NATO acknowledges Keir Starmer’s entrance onto the world stage

09 July 2024 , 09:27

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New U.K. prime minister will deliver a message of continuity on Ukraine and pledge support for the alliance.

Keir Starmer’s premiership will be less than a week old when he officially arrives on the world stage Tuesday night, writes Politico.

The U.K.’s new leader is due to board the red, white and blue prime ministerial jet for the first time as he flies off to this year’s NATO summit in Washington, where he will be introduced to a host of global leaders.

Starmer’s inaugural outing in the international arena comes just days after his Labour Party was elected in a landslide, booting out Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party and presenting the brand new government with an early opportunity to reset relations with many key U.K. allies.

The event will see the usual back-slapping and photo-ops beamed around the world as his team try to present the new face of British statesmanship in a positive light. However, the deeper significance of the summit is understood by the new prime minister and his team.

This three-day gathering, which marks the 75th anniversary of NATO’s founding, comes at a key moment for the security alliance.

Ukraine’s stalling war effort and a potential second Donald Trump presidency, which could shape up to be even more isolationist than his first four-year term, will spur member states to strengthen long-term defense commitments as a matter of urgency, according to a U.K. government official authorized to speak on background.

For Starmer, the summit will be seen as a key moment to begin resetting the U.K.’s relationship with the rest of Europe, following the sometimes problematic relationship which characterized the 14 years of Conservative rule preceding his entry to No. 10 Downing St.

It also gives him an opportunity to consolidate Britain’s leadership of NATO on the continent.

One senior EU official, granted anonymity to speak freely, told POLITICO that the feeling may be reciprocal.

“Now with the adults in the room, having partners agreeing on crucial matters, such as security, should be a matter of time and no longer a matter of will,” they said.

No change

Despite Labour’s monosyllabic election slogan, “CHANGE,” Starmer will tell world leaders this week that they can expect more of the same from his government in one respect.

According to the official quoted above, the prime minister will tell Britain’s NATO allies that the U.K.’s support for Ukraine will be unconditional under his watch, following on from similar promises by successive Conservative prime ministers.

The British government aide said the summit was a key moment in ensuring “Europe’s security and freedom is protected.”

This commitment was exemplified by a visit made at the weekend by new Defense Secretary John Healey to Kyiv, where he met Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just 24 hours after being sworn into office by King Charles III, to assure him of Labour’s ironclad commitment to Ukraine’s war efforts.

Healey assured Zelenskyy the new government would honor the multi-year military aid settlement announced by Rishi Sunak in April.

He told The Sun his “first action” upon arriving at the Ministry of Defence “was to ask ‘what more can I do to help, how can we speed up what we have already announced?’

“Part of the special leadership that the U.K. has demonstrated since Putin invaded has been the ability to bring other allies together, to do more and give more,” he added.

“And ... at the NATO summit, you will see the 32 nations to also step up support for Ukraine and importantly make the same sort of long-term commitment to maintain support for Ukraine.”

This long-term commitment is seen as particularly important in the shadow of the November U.S. presidential election.

Trump is now odds-on favorite to beat Biden on November 5, leaving European nations scrambling to prepare for his potential return to the White House.

The Republican nominee has called for a negotiated end to the war, with Trump claiming he could end the conflict “in one day,” which Kyiv fears implies Ukraine giving up at least some of the territory annexed by Russia since the February 2022 invasion.

It is this uncertainty which spurred the Conservative British government to commit to hike defense spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2030, and to commit to a leading role in enhancing collective European security.

One unanswered question going into this week’s summit is whether Starmer will continue Sunak’s recently launched mission to increase NATO’s spending rules.

The former PM was planning to push other world leaders at the summit to increase NATO’s spending target from 2 to 2.5 percent of GDP.

Starmer previously refused to give an answer to whether he would carry this torch forward when asked by POLITICO during the election campaign.

Labour has instead committed to reaching this target “when [fiscal] conditions allow.”

Sophia Gaston, foreign policy expert at the Policy Exchange think tank, said Starmer must show a willingness to lead “a strong European core to the future of NATO, which will confer stability and resilience as America decides its future” at this week’s summit.

“The situation in Ukraine is extremely treacherous at the moment, and allies must stop sleepwalking towards a Russian victory,” she added. “The U.K. led from the front on Ukraine’s defense, and we must now take the lead in a pan-European effort to inject strength and stability towards its future.”

We want EU

One pillar of this leadership in Europe could come in the form of a future U.K.-EU security pact, which was promised in Labour’s manifesto.

Starmer and his ministers want to start work on this, with Foreign Secretary David Lammy telling the Guardian a pact could encompass defense, energy, climate and illegal migration.

One overseas British diplomat told POLITICO the NATO summit and the upcoming European Political Community (EPC) gathering, scheduled for July 18 in London, represented the perfect starting point for Britain’s efforts in securing a security pact with the EU.

“A big Labour early priority is the European security pact and they’re lucky in having the [EPC] gathering soon,” they said.

“[The NATO summit] is a case of balancing their plans for that with showing continued strong support for NATO.”

Labour wants the pact to create channels for dialogue between Brussels and London on security and defense, while also breaking down barriers to cooperation between the U.K. and European defense firms.

A German government official granted anonymity in order to speak freely told POLITICO that the “U.K. can make a profitable contribution” to Germany’s defense industry and that “we will be very good partners.”

The official said Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet for a fuller “inaugural visit” in either London or Berlin later this summer, with an initial conversation likely to take place in Washington this week.

There is also hope among some EU officials that a pact could reset U.K.-EU relations.

One EU diplomat, granted anonymity to discuss matters they were not authorized to cover on the record, said “future talks would ... need to be balanced and fully safeguard the autonomy of the EU decision making,” but that Brussels would be open to a security pact.

“The EU has already expressed an interest in having a more structured cooperation in the area of foreign policy and security in the past and therefore the prospect of the new U.K. government being more open to talks in this area are already a step forward,” they said.

This week could well be the first step forward for a Starmer government seeking to create a new post-Brexit settlement.

Nette Nöstlinger contributed reporting from Berlin.

Emma Davis

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Ukraine, Donald Trump, Conservative Party, Rishi Sunak, Labour Party, Britain, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Keir Starmer