6 months ago
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WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will sojourn the White House connected Thursday successful an effort to person President Donald Trump that Ukraine and European leaders request a spot astatine the array arsenic the U.S. negotiates an extremity to the yearslong Russia-Ukraine war.
The gathering follows a sojourn from French President Emmanuel Macron connected Monday, reflecting a mounting interest felt by overmuch of Europe that Trump’s assertive propulsion to extremity the war in Ukraine signals his willingness to concede excessively overmuch to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Macron called his gathering with Trump a "turning point," but nary woody to extremity the warfare successful Ukraine has been reached.
Keir Starmer to rise British defence budget
Trump has been calling for the U.K. and European nations to summation their spending arsenic the U.S. has provided billions to Ukraine successful subject aid.
Starmer connected Tuesday pledged to increase the U.K. defence budget to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 successful hopes of persuading Trump to support U.S. enactment for Ukraine and the NATO alliance.
The U.K. presently spends 2.3% of GDP connected defense, and the authorities had antecedently acceptable a 2.5% people without mounting a date.
Starmer told lawmakers the summation amounts to an further 13.4 cardinal pounds ($17 billion) annually. He said the extremity is for defence spending to summation to 3% of GDP by 2035.
Marco Rubio: US-Ukraine rare minerals deal a 'tush push' away
Trump has announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will besides sojourn the White House connected Friday to motion a woody connected rare world minerals. Details of the statement are vague, but what is known is that the U.S. is requesting gross from Ukraine’s uncommon minerals, which are utilized successful the aerospace, defence and atomic industries.
Trump believes this is simply a mode for the U.S. to recoup its concern successful Ukrainian defence efforts.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the deal is simply a "tush push" away — a notation to the Philadelphia Eagles' signature tush-push strategy.
Trump floats post-war meeting with Russia's Putin
Relations betwixt the U.S. and Russia person grown person since a gathering earlier this period in Saudi Arabia successful which some nations agreed to cooperate beyond the war.
Senior Russian and U.S. diplomats are gathering successful Istanbul connected Thursday to sermon their embassies’ operations and enactment toward normalizing diplomatic relations.
Trump has suggested a imaginable face-to-face gathering with Putin successful Russia aft the warfare successful Ukraine ends to sermon a imaginable bid deal, though helium did not specify concessions.
NewsNation's Libbey Dean and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
