British prime minister Keir Starmer struck the right note when he referred to a “once in a generation moment for the security of Europe” at the summit he chaired in London on Ukraine yesterday. The speed of policy change is breathtaking – but understandable when so much is at stake. Starmer announced that a plan is being formulated with France and Ukraine on Ukraine’s security. He will present it to US president Donald Trump in the hope that together it can be taken forward. This sets up the issue for decisive negotiations in coming weeks.
French, German, Spanish, European Union and Nato representation at yesterday’s summit, together with other states and consulted ones, make this urgently-convened summit roughly representative of most European states in their response to the extraordinary moves taken by the Trump administration. The blunt and brutal message to Ukraine’s government that the US will not provide a security guarantee, that it cannot join Nato and that it should sign a lopsided raw materials deal with the US to repay US military aid has provoked this crisis. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s dramatic rejection of these terms at his meeting with President Donald Trump required a concerted European response.
Trying to mediate between Washington and Kyiv, Starmer said that Europe would have to do the “heavy-lifting” in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security, but would need US support. It is a constructive initiative, which confirms the UK’s European identity at what he rightly described as a crossroads of history.
He announced a four-point plan that the states involved will keep military aid flowing, engage more deeply with the US, insist that Ukraine must be at the table, and develop their coalition of states willing to take the lead on these issues, while acknowledging that not all who attended are fully committed to this perspective. Some EU countries are still loath to send their own troops to Ukraine. This meeting was as much symbolic as substantive; it sets the scene for further intense negotiations – in the European Union later this week, with the Trump administration, with Ukraine and then , potentially, with the Russians. Many details remain to be thrashed out.
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Ukraine provides the immediate agenda for this transatlantic crisis, but military support for Kyiv and a much more coordinated European security and defence effort are only part of the story. Economic and social policies are equally challenged at this crossroads. European states and peoples are profoundly challenged to defend their own interests and values against US power and right-wing assertiveness.
Ireland is directly affected by this crisis and has an important role to play in transatlantic talks in the next two weeks. We have difficult choices to make about them, as do our fellow Europeans.
