British Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed hope that the Washington meeting will lead to a “historic step“ towards ensuring the security of Ukraine and Europe as a whole, Ukrinform reported, quoted by BTA.
He made the statement at the start of a meeting at the White House, which was attended by the presidents of the United States and Ukraine, as well as European leaders.
“I think this is an extremely important meeting. As a group, we have already discussed the issue on the phone many times, Mr. President, and now we have the opportunity to sit down around the table to move forward. I am convinced that with the right approach this afternoon we can make real progress, particularly on the issue of security guarantees,“ he said.
Starmer pointed to the possibility of achieving real progress towards a “just and lasting solution“.
“Obviously that has to include Ukraine, and the trilateral meeting seems the logical next step. Thank you for being willing to move on to the next stage, because if we can ensure that we get something out of this meeting - both in terms of security guarantees and in terms of some progress towards a trilateral meeting that puts some of the difficult issues on the table, then I think today will be seen as a very important day in recent years, in terms of a conflict that has been going on for three and a half years now,“ the British prime minister said.
A meeting was held at the White House last night, attended by the presidents of the United States and Ukraine, along with leading European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgi Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.