Andrew Feinberg looks at how UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer could soon face a president with a drastically different view of Ukraine’s future as the new PM meets with US President Joe Biden in Washington, DC
Biden and Keir Starmer meet in Washington DC to discuss key global issues
Biden and Starmer meet at the White House as questions over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles grow. While they met, Starmer will be face-to-face with a new US leader in just a few months.
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.
As Starmer plots a course of Ukraine, he will be dealing with Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in months – and they will have their own thoughts on Russian policy.