With Donald Trump looming as one of two possible occupants of the White House come January, the stakes for Ukraine’s future could not have been higher as US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer met in Washington for the second time in the last three months.
It added a new level of intrigue to Friday’s face-to-face between Starmer and Biden. The two allies gathered at the White House to talk about Ukraine policy, but in just a few months, Starmer will have to work with – or oppose – a new US leader.
Biden, who announced nearly two months ago that he would stand down from his bid for re-election, will be leaving office on January 20.
The person who replaces him might be Trump, who has all but declared that his approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine will be to cut off American aide, let Russia win, and perhaps go as far as pulling America out of the NATO alliance.
Democrat nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has adopted the polar opposite stance, and reaffirmed American commitment to Ukraine if she is elected. Starmer won’t know who he is dealing with until November at the earliest, and they won’t take the office until January.
In Washington, at Biden’s invitation, the Prime Minister has found himself at a crossroads as Kyiv pushes to be permitted to use its British-built Storm Shadow missiles to attack targets deep in Russia’s interior as a way of pushing back on the continued war Vladimir Putin’s army is waging.
It’s a decision that Starmer can’t make on his own.
Though Starmer could conceivably authorize the use of the British missiles for attacks on Russian targets on the far side of the country’s border with Ukraine, he can’t give assent to using the targeting data that would allow such strikes because it is controlled by the US Department of Defense.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has suggested that America would be amenable to changing the policy that has so far kept Kyiv from striking deep within Russian territory with Western-provided missiles.
White House spokesperson John Kirby on Thursday said no decision to reverse the policy was expected during the meeting between Biden and Starmer.
Yet during the portion of their sit-down that was open to the press, the Prime Minister hinted that such discussions were on the agenda, telling Biden: that “the next few weeks and months could be crucial, very, very important” for Ukraine’s defense in what he called “this vital war of freedom.”
“I think that historically, we’ve shown the strength of our relationship, that we are strategically aligned. We have common cause on these global issues, and therefore it’s very important for us to have this opportunity to talk them through, not just as a matter of fact it but also the wider strategy that underpins them so thank you for the invitation,” he said.
A White House readout of their meeting stated that Biden and Starmer had “an in-depth discussion on a range of foreign policy issues of mutual interest” and “reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine as it continues to defend against Russia’s aggression.”
But a decision on letting Kyiv use longer-range weapons wasn’t forthcoming.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting wrapped, the Prime Minister said the sit-down hadn’t been “about a particular decision” and said the discussions would resume when the two meet again on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month, along with what he described as “a wider group of individuals.”
Still, all of it could be moot should Trump top Harris in November’s election, since the once and perhaps future president has made clear his intent to cut off support in favor of Moscow.
Yet Starmer wasn’t willing to discuss any contingencies for such a result — or much else when pressed by reporters before he boarded his motorcade.
“There’s only one reason we’re having these discussions, and that is that Putin has illegally invaded Ukraine, and the biggest way to resolve this obviously lies through what Putin actually does, because it’s manipulating this,” he said.“But we are having a discussion, we stood with Ukraine. Ukraine has a right to self-defense, and we’ve stood united, not just with allies here in the US, but across with our NATO allies.”