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UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged their “unwavering” support for Ukraine as the two leaders met in Paris days after a second Trump administration was elected in the US.
They “reaffirmed their commitment to co-ordinate closely, stressing their determination to support Ukraine unwaveringly and for as long as necessary to thwart Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine”, the Elysée said in a statement on Monday.
It added that Macron “stressed the need to assert the specific interests and responsibilities of Europeans in matters of security and defence”.
Downing Street issued a statement after the meeting suggesting that the defence of Ukraine was at the top of the agenda during talks between the two leaders. “The leaders started by discussing the situation in Ukraine, including how best to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position going into the winter,” it said.
Starmer met Macron in Paris on Monday as the prime minister became the first UK leader to attend Armistice Day commemorations in France for 80 years.
The meeting was an attempt by the two European leaders to show a united front on Ukraine ahead of a new administration in Washington that could upturn western support for Kyiv.
Earlier this year Macron’s stance on the conflict took a more hawkish tone when he broke a taboo among allies by refusing to rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine — taking EU leaders as well as the Kremlin by surprise. Macron said the aim was to re-establish “strategic ambiguity” with Russia.
Donald Trump and his advisers have spoken repeatedly of their desire to end the conflict during the campaign without saying how that would be achieved. European partners worry that Trump’s isolationist tendencies and criticism of the region’s defence spending could lead to the US withdrawing from efforts to support Ukraine in the conflict.
Trump has called on Nato member states to raise their defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP — a sizeable jump for most even after European countries increased their defence budgets in the years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The UK spends 2.3 per cent of GDP and France said it would spend about 2 per cent on defence this year, hitting an objective set by Nato.
“I’ll insist that every Nato nation must spend at least 3 per cent. You have to go up to 3 per cent — 2 per cent is the steal of the century, especially as we’re paying for it,” Trump said at a campaign event in August.
His son Donald Trump Jr shared a social media post at the weekend suggesting Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy was just weeks away from losing his “allowance” — in a reference to US military aid.
The Kremlin has denied a report that Vladimir Putin spoke to Trump after his election victory last week. Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president’s spokesman, was responding to a Washington Post report that Trump warned Putin not to escalate his invasion of Ukraine during a call last Thursday.
At their meeting on Monday, Macron and Starmer also shared their “deep concern” about the situation in Gaza and Lebanon and discussed their determination to disrupt people smuggling gangs.
Newspapers reported prior to the talks that the French and British leaders would discuss free trade amid fears about Trump’s desire to impose tariffs on imports into the US. Yet the subsequent statements from London and Paris conspicuously did not mention trade — perhaps reflecting caution around public criticism of the US president-elect.
