Starmer Key Europe Leader During Ukraine War

 

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer sign Treaty on Friendship and Bilateral Cooperation 

Starmer Key Europe Leader During Ukraine War

Deepak Razdan                            

Sunday, 20 July, 2025

Financial wars like the one started by US President Donald Trump on 2nd April this year appeared pushing the world to a brink. But it did not change things much.

Even today world leaders are born out of military wars; the trade tariff warfare only leaves people confused.

United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer is emerging as Europe’s leader as the United States abandoned its role as the chief guarantor of Europe’s security.

Mr Starmer hosted the first European Union-UK Summit in London in May last. The Summit demonstrated a common stance in working together for peace and security in Europe and to establish a new strategic partnership.

He had already floated the Coalition of the Willing to unite European nations ready to help Ukraine against Russia’s devastating war.

Maintaining the momentum, he concluded UK-France and UK-Germany treaties to tighten a European network against any external threat.

Along with French President Emmanuel Macron, he declared “from today our adversaries will know that any extreme threat to this Continent would prompt response from our two nations."

The provocation for the UK Prime Minister’s initiatives was the Russian war against Ukraine which shows no sign of ending early.

The Russian war was perceived as a serious threat to Europe’s security and Mr Starmer decided to act and lead a European response.

Russia has been ignoring all appeals for peace and does not care for European sanctions against its economy. Russian President Vladimir Putin does not take even Mr Trump’s ceasefire deadlines seriously.

The US President too forced Europe to look to the skies when he said the US will not foot the bill for Europe’s protection any longer.

Mr Trump maintained he does not want to indulge in wasteful expenditure to solve problems of other parts of the world.

He is pursuing the policy of America First, and devoting time to make America rich again. America has to recover from decades of trade deficits with most countries of the world, he said.

Mr Trump agreed to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request for sophisticated air defence systems only on the condition that the cost for the supplies would be borne by Ukraine’s European neighbours.

European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen flew to London to meet Mr Starmer on 19 May for the first EU-UK summit since the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

This Summit marks a new chapter in the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, the two EU leaders said.

Full of overtones that their Summit was influenced by the war on the European Continent, the EU and UK leaders reaffirmed their commitment to tackling strategic and geopolitical issues.

They welcomed an agreement on the EU-UK security and defence partnership which recognised the UK and the EU share a responsibility for the security of Europe.

The security and prosperity of the UK and the EU are also closely interconnected and interdependent, the partnership document said.

Mr Starmer has enjoyed good relations with Mr Trump and was able to conclude an early trade tariff deal with the US. This has definitely made him a special head of government in Europe.

In London for the UK-France Summit, Mr Macron addressed the British Parliament on 8th July and said he was the first French President since 2008 to address British MPs in the Palace of Westminster.

Acknowledging Mr Starmer’s leadership initiatives, he thanked him for being the first UK Prime Minister in 80 years since Sir Winston Churchill to attend the Armistice Day in Paris last November.

Getting closer, he said the UK might have left the EU; it had not drifted away from Europe. As permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, he said, the UK and France must once again show to the world that “our alliance can make all the difference.”

Their Summit being the result of the Ukraine war, Mr Macron said “every time Putin’s forces advance in Ukraine, the threat moves closer to us all.”

“We will never accept might is right. And this is why we decided to launch last February the Coalition of the Willing, and this coalition was just the signal that Europeans will never abandon Ukraine, never,” the French leader said.

Mr Starmer responded “the security of the British people starts in Ukraine.”  Talking like war-time allies, the two leaders announced “plans for a multi-nation force for Ukraine, headquartered in Paris so that we are ready to support a peace deal when it comes.”

The UK-France Summit resulted in several tangible results. A Joint declaration at the end of the Summit confirmed this. 

It said “As Europe’s two nuclear powers and leading militaries, we share responsibility for the continent’s defence and security.”

The two countries said “We are united in the face of profound security threats and challenges, in particular the immediate and pressing threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security.”

The UK and French leaders said they had decided to establish a UK-France Nuclear Steering Group that will coordinate policy, capability and operation.

“We will launch the Combined Joint Force, to build a shared capability of sufficient scale for war-fighting, and ready to operate in all domains, including space and cyber, in the defence of Europe,” they said.

This evolution of the existing Combined Joint Expeditionary Force will continue to be at the forefront of Coalition of the Willing planning, they said.

The two leaders said “We have also agreed the path for new military capability projects, including the next generation of our Deep Strike and Air-to-Air missiles.”

Last Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was on his first trip of London after taking office and signed a historic friendship treaty with Mr Starmer. The treaty takes note of the war on the European Continent right at the beginning.

In an interview, Mr Merz said Europe had to take care of its defence now as the US President was not as clear and committed about defence of Europe as his predecessors were. The US is moving away from Europe and turning towards Asia.

He said he was very close to Mr Starmer. “We were together in Kyiv, the very first week of my Chancellorship,” he said. “We want our countries to come close economically,” he said. Britain and Germany are friends and allies, he accepted.

The UK and Germany will intensify trilateral cooperation with the French Republic, as well as their cooperation with other partners, and within multilateral formats such as the G7 and the United Nations, in order to jointly address international challenges.

The UK-Germany Treaty provides the two countries will “deepen their cooperation to understand, counter and respond to threats and hostile actions by state and non-state actors.” UK’s treaties with France and Germany show Mr Starmer’s leadership.