Following Thursday’s big speech on public sector reform, Sir Keir Starmer has since turned his attention back to foreign affairs. This morning the Prime Minister hosted a conference call with European and Commonwealth counterparts to discuss support for Ukraine. The ‘coalition of the willing’ met to discuss their response to Vladimir Putin’s contemptuous dismissal of their efforts on Thursday night. With the Russian President seemingly reluctant to entertain an imminent ceasefire, today’s ‘virtual summit’ was about maintaining a united front for the pre-negotiations.
In his remarks, Starmer told coalition leaders that ‘what this week has shown’ is that Ukraine is ‘the party of peace’ as President Zelenskyy is the one who ‘has committed to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.’ He insisted that ‘sooner or later Putin is going to have to come to the table and engage’ but until then ‘we have to keep pushing forward and preparing for peace.’ This, in Starmer’s view, means three things: bolstering Ukrainian military capability, creating a coalition to defend a future deal and keeping up ‘maximum pressure’ on Putin to come to the table.
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