LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has spoken of heightened "tension" between US President Donald Trump and Europe at a gathering of leaders from across the continent, which he used to announce the United Kingdom's bid to join the European Union's recovery loan for Ukraine. Trump has lashed out at some Nato nations for what he sees as their lack of support for Washington in Iran, most recently announcing plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany.
The prime minister warned of the strained relations at the European Political Community summit in Armenia, which is being dominated by the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, amid concerns over the US president's waning interest in the first and attacks on traditional allies over their stance on the second. Speaking in the plenary session, Starmer said: "We cannot deny that some of the alliances that we have come to rely on are not in the place we would want them to be." "There is more tension in the alliances than there should be and it's very important that we therefore face up to this as a group of countries together."
The prime minister also said the damage done to economies around the world by the Middle East crisis would "play out with our electorates in all of our countries." His trip to Yerevan comes as Labour is expected to face a drubbing in this week's local elections. Starmer announced that Britain would start talks to access the European Union's 90 billion ($105 billion) loan for Kyiv, which amounts to around £78 billion. In a read-out of a meeting on Ukraine he co-chaired with France in the margins of the summit, a spokeswoman for the prime minister said:"The leaders discussed the European Union's £78 billion loan to Ukraine, and the prime minister underlined the opportunity the UK's involvement would bring for both Ukraine and European security."
Speaking to media as he arrived at the Yerevan gathering, Starmer said the UK's involvement in the initiative would be "very good" for Ukraine's military capability, for British jobs and for UK-EU relations. The UK and EU, which will hold another joint summit this summer, will negotiate the parameters of access to the loan in the coming weeks,the prime minister's office said. — dpa
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