In Lancaster House, a 19th century manor adjacent to the Buckingham Palace, it looked like a moment of truth for Europe, while the greatest powers of the continent gathered to try to save something from an order from the ruin post-war period.
Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, working in tandem, had a clear message in London: Europe must prove to Donald Trump that this is part of the solution to the crisis on his own continentnot part of the problem.
As one of the British Prime Minister’s allies said it before the meeting, there was no alternative to correct things with the White House: “The Prime Minister will bring people together and politely ensure that they realize that there is only one negotiation in the city – and it is President Trump.”
Cross Trump’s diplomatic debris Disastrous oval office confrontation With President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Starmer and Macron clearly indicated on Sunday that Europe should intervene to try to recover any notion of war in Ukraine.
Starmer said that this meant that Great Britain and France hammered with Zelenskyy what a post-foot colony could look like in Ukraine, then bring the European plan to Trump, acting as mediators in the toxic relationship between kyiv and Washington.
The British Prime Minister insisted that any final agreement should involve Ukraine – including any agreement on the place where the “line” post -hostle truce is traced with Russia – but in the meantime, Europe would launch diplomacy on behalf of Kyiv.
This delicate task – perhaps impossible – will now fall to three European leaders with whom Trump seems to have the best relations: Starmer and Macron, who visited the White House last week – and Giorgia Meloni of Italy.
“It is very, very important to avoid the risk that the West is divided,” said Meloni to Starmer in bilateral talks to Downing Street before the Lancaster House summit.
The prospect of a permanent break between Europe and the United States already causes joy to the Kremlin. Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson by President Vladimir Putin, praised Trump’s administration to “radically change all his foreign policy configurations” and head for Moscow’s vision on his invasion of Ukraine.
Peskov declared on state television that Trump’s position “coincides largely with our vision”. He said it was “impossible to imagine” before that the United States and Russia would vote together on a United Nations resolution which did not blame Moscow for the conflict.
The real danger of a transatlantic breakdown was suspended above the meeting of the house of Lancaster, bathed under the sun of the early spring of London. As if to highlight the risk, Elon Musk, Trump’s bureaucracy, cited a post of an American political commentator on his X platform saying that he was “time to leave NATO and the UN”. The billionaire added: “I agree”.
Starmer and Macron did everything possible to launch a diplomatic arm around Zelenskyy – literally in the case of the British Prime Minister at Downing Street on Saturday. On Sunday, King Charles also met the Ukrainian chief.
But behind the hugs, there was a hard warning to the Ukrainian leader that the path to any sustainable peace takes place through the White House and that Zelenskyy must start talking to Trump and sign an agreement to postpone Some future mineral rights in his country in the United States.
Starmer was in mind, according to British officials, to clearly tell Trump during a phone call on Saturday evening that the summit of the Lancaster house was not a case in Europe trying to regroup against him.
“The Prime Minister’s priority is to do everything you need to defend Ukraine,” said a Starmer ally. “This means that the United States must be involved. You must repair this relationship and return to this mineral agreement. »»
But Starmer, Macron and Meloni also agreed, according to European diplomats, that they will have to direct diplomatic efforts to preserve the American security guarantee, not only on Ukraine but on the whole continent.
Starmer and Macron have promised a force led by the United Kingdom to ensure insurance in the event of a truce in the Ukrainian conflict and urged other European countries to join a “coalition of the will”. So far, there has not been a jostling to help.
But they have clearly indicated, according to British officials, that such a force would be doomed to failure unless the United States provides a “safety net” – or more precisely air coverage and surveillance to protect European troops on the ground.
Starmer also noted the dangers of imperfect agreements with Putin, citing the failure of minon agreements on Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. “We cannot accept a weak affair like Minsk that Russia can violate with ease,” he said.
But Trump has not given any indication that he is ready to provide assistance to ensure that any agreement takes. The European promises to rearore – the president told the continent to stop free rein on American guarantees during the best of the decade – may have arrived too late.
Trump told Starmer this week that he considered the future presence of American companies and workers in Ukraine – operating the country’s mineral reserves – being dissuasive enough for Putin.
Perhaps for lack of other options, Europe is trying to control the damage. Macron told the Didanche forum that he “tried to make the Americans understand that Ukraine’s disengagement is not in their interest”.
“We must not spare our efforts to maintain a strong transatlantic link,” wrote the president of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, after a video call with Starmer and other Baltic leaders on Sunday morning.
There is also a deep concern in certain European capitals, in particular those along the eastern flank of the EU which are the most exposed to the Russian threat and in particular dependent on American protection, that a break with Trump on Ukraine could still undermine the American engagement in the collective defense of NATO.
Meloni – A fervent supporter of kyiv, who also has good relations with Trump – presented ideas to limit the repercussions of the Oval row from the office, with his public call for an immediate summit in the United States to jointly discuss the future of Ukraine and a telephone conversation with Trump on Saturday evening.
But Germany, Spain and Poland are among the countries that have not been committed to sending troops to Ukraine, while the EU only sets up a plan to try to strengthen the expenses of the continent in defense.
There is growing frustration in London that some of the European leaders must prevent Trump’s public criticism and his diplomatic assault against Zelenskyy and start to show the White House that they will have the will to take responsibility for their own backyard.
“What Ukraine needs now are firearms and butter,” said a Starmer ally. “He doesn’t need people to tweet and signaling virtue.” In Lancaster House on Sunday, there have been a lot of discussions, but Europe knows that it must now act.
Adrienne Klasa additional report in Paris
