3 months ago
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Leaders from across Europe expressed support for Ukraine and concern about the direction of the United States on Thursday at a security-focused summit clouded by worries about whether the US will remain a reliable ally if Donald Trump wins a second presidency.
Newly elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed around 45 heads of government to a grandiose English country mansion to discuss migration, energy security and the threat from Russia, as he seeks to restore relations between the United Kingdom and its European Union neighbours four years after their acrimonious divorce.
The venue for the European Political Community meeting, Blenheim Palace, was the birthplace of Britain’s World War II Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Starmer said the leaders were gathering “as a new storm gathers over our continent”.
“Our first task here today is to confirm our steadfast support for Ukraine, to unite once again behind those values that we cherish, and to say we will face down aggression on this continent together,” Starmer said, adding that the threat from Russia “reaches right across Europe”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a key guest at the meeting, aimed at shoring up Europe’s support for his country’s defence and discussing ways to defend democracy. The UK accuses Moscow of seeking to undermine European democracies with cyberattacks, disinformation and sabotage.
Others making the trip to Blenheim Palace, a Baroque country mansion 60 miles (100 kilometres) northwest of London, included German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stayed away as she fought to secure a second term from lawmakers in the European Parliament, which she received as the summit was under way.
A brainchild of Macron, the European Political Community was established in 2022 as a forum for countries both inside and outside the 27-nation EU after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine shattered Europe’s sense of security. Previous summits have been held in the Czech capital, Prague; Chisinau, Moldova; and Granada, Spain.
Starmer’s centre-left government aims to rebuild ties with the EU strained by years of ill-tempered wrangling over Brexit divorce terms. A key priority is a new UK-EU security pact that Starmer hopes to strike soon.
“We are confident that a new chapter will be opened with the UK,” European Council President Charles Michel said as he arrived.
Starmer said that the UK plans to take a more active role on the world stage, especially when it comes to Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion and to people-smuggling gangs organising irregular migration.
He told fellow leaders that under his government, the UK would be “a friend and a partner, ready to work with you – not part of the European Union, but very much part of Europe”.
He said that under him, “we will never withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights” – something the previous Conservative UK government had flirted with, to the alarm of the UK’s European allies.
The UK plans to work more closely with the European police agency Europol against people smuggling, part of measures to beef up border security following Starmer’s decision to scrap the Conservatives’ contentious and unrealised plan to send migrants arriving in the UK by boat on a one-way trip to Rwanda.
Starmer urged European nations to cooperate against “the vile trade of people smuggling”.
“Let’s be frank – ‘challenge’ is the wrong word,” he said. “It is now, I think, a crisis. We must combine our resources, share intelligence, share tactics, shut down the smuggling routes and smash the gangs.”
Starmer will hold a dinner for Macron on Thursday evening, where the two men will discuss what more can be done to stop thousands of migrants each year making hazardous journeys across the English Channel from France.
When Britain agreed earlier this year to hold the one-day summit, Conservative leader Rishi Sunak was prime minister. His defeat in a July 4 election meant that it was Starmer who welcomed leaders to Blenheim Palace – a key getting-to-know-you moment for the new leader.
Delegates were being treated to full British hospitality – including strawberries with cream and a reception hosted by King Charles III – and to mingle informally in a “leaders’ lounge” and the palace’s ornate gardens.
Many thoughts strayed to the US, where the weekend assassination attempt on Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, underscored how febrile and polarised politics has become before the November 5 election.
Trump’s scepticism about NATO has long worried US allies. Trump’s choice of Senator J.D. Vance, an opponent of US military aid to Ukraine, as vice-presidential running mate has heightened concerns.
Politicians and officials at the summit stressed the need for Europe to show it was taking steps to protect its own security.
“European countries must stand on their own legs more than ever,” Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof said.
That sentiment was echoed by several other leaders, but not by Hungary’s pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has riled other EU nations with a series of rogue meetings with foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, about Ukraine.
Orbán said a Trump victory would be “the best news for everybody, because he’s a man of the people”.
Zelenskyy appeared to refer to Orbán when he urged European nations to remain united.
“If someone wants to make some trips to the capital of war to talk and perhaps promise something against our common interests, or to the expense of Ukraine or other countries, then why should we consider such a person?” Zelenskyy said. “The EU and NATO can also address all their issues without this one individual.”
AP
English (US) ·