Trump hosts UK’s Keir Starmer for Ukraine talks amid disagreement over security guarantees

President Donald Trump is hosting United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House on Thursday.

The two leaders held a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office and are scheduled to hold a news conference in the East Room.

Senior administration officials told reporters that much of the conversations between Trump and Starmer will focus on a peaceful resolution for the Russia-Ukraine war.

The meeting comes after Europe was left out of talks between the U.S. and Russia on how to end Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, which recently stretched into its fourth year.

Trump has since said Europe will have to bear primary responsibility for any security guarantees for Ukraine, as nations such as France and the United Kingdom urge the U.S. to support peacekeeping efforts post-conflict.

“Well, I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,” Trump said at his first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “We’re going to have Europe do that because it’s in, you know, we’re talking about Europe is the next-door neighbor, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well.”

Trump also implied the mineral resource deal between the U.S. and Ukraine would be “automatic security,” because the U.S. will be investing in the nation and that would serve as a barrier to Russia.

Starmer has said he will ensure the United Kingdom is a “leading country” in European nations stepping up to support Ukraine, but said there needs to be a U.S. “backstop” to deter Putin.

“I don’t believe it will be a guarantee if there isn’t the U.S. backstop behind those security guarantees,” Starmer said after European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris on Ukraine last week as Trump officials gathered with Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia.

Administration officials said the U.S. has been in constant contact with European partners and providing updates on negotiations regarding an agreement to end the war.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Washington, D.C., on Friday.

Ukraine is working to win a U.S. security agreement as part of the proposed minerals deal, Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Senior Trump administration officials, taking questions from reporters on Thursday, were asked about the United Kingdom’s request for a U.S. backstop to European peacekeeping efforts and if the U.S. is prepared to provide air defense systems for security guarantee.

One official referred to Trump’s comments in the Cabinet meeting, saying the primary goal is creating lasting peace and reiterated past statements that “the economic partnership with the Ukrainians does not include any specific guarantee of funding for future war fighting, nor does it commit any U.S. personnel in the region.”

Another official argued a lot of countries have concerns about putting boots on the ground in Ukraine.

“I would say that there’s a balance between the size of the force needed and the strength of the diplomacy that backstops that, that secures it,” an official said.

“If that conflict level, as we want, is dialed down to a functional ceasefire, they would have fewer concerns … So the type of force depends very much on the political self settlement that is made to end the war,” the official continued. “And I think that trade off is what the leaders today, part of what the leaders today are going to be discussing.”