Rod Liddle: UK Correspondent on Kier Starmer's role in the White House meetings regarding Ukraine

A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and the United States is looking likely. 

US President Donald Trump's been meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House today, following talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Saturday. 

Zelenskyy and Trump are now meeting with other leaders, including Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 

UK Correspondent Rod Liddle told Mike Hosking Starmer is saying he thinks they can make real progress to end the war. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I ever mentioned it, probably while mainly because nothing to

(00:02):
mention they are in the meeting. Still the meeting has
taking place. Mind you, if you looked at earlier on
when we were featuring the chat around the dining table
where each of them got to say, you can see
why these things take so long, because as you hear
one person articulates something, everyone else sits around going mmmmm,
and so it goes right. Anyway, this is what Starmer

(00:23):
said before he went in.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
A trilateral meeting seems the sensible next step. So thank
you for being prepared to take that forward, because I
think if we can ensure that that is the progress
out of this meeting, both security guarantees and some sort
of progress on trilateral meeting of some sort to bring
some of the difficult issues to a head, then I

(00:47):
think today we'll be seen as a very important day
in recent years.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Rod morning, to you, to you, So half of Europe.
No one's left in Britain, of course, because half of
Europe is in Washington as we speak at the big
meeting in the chain way as Starmer left. What hope
does Britain see that this could end?

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Well? More hope than we had. I think yesterday, and
indeed on Saturday, Friday and Saturday our time, one had
only fully grave reservations about the Trump Putin summit, especially
given the treatment meeted out to Vladimir Putin by Donald Trump.

(01:29):
And since then the European leaders have been ringing Donald
Trump and speaking with greater and greater urgency to him,
which is to say, you know, Russia can't come out
of this with more land than it has of the moment,
which is one of the central issues. But now we've
had both Zelensky and indeed Sekir Starma Zelensky said needs

(01:55):
have been the best talk so far, and Starma saying
that he's in that they can make real progress to
end the war, that a trilateral meeting is the sensible
next step, and it would be a historical step forward.
I think that comes about if you look at what
Vladimia putinies has offered us his conditions for peace. If

(02:19):
Russia got the whole of the Don Bass, I think
that Britain, France, Germany would complain. I think there would
be fury amongst the Western European leaders if that happened,
apart from in Hungary obviously, but if there could be
suddenly or done which involved just part of the donbassali
the Eastern region that it is split into two. Then

(02:41):
I think that's more likely. That's something which is possible
to achieve. But that being said, it's a long way
away yet, Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
What's more important to a Starma or Europe for that matter.
Is it the security guarantee that if you give put
in a chunk of land, that's it and we believe
that's it, or is it just the security guarantee and
you give away any thing you want because it's not
yours in the first place.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
I think it's it's two or three things. Firstly, a
domestic political front. He needs to be seen to be
strong Starma, and he's been reasonably strong on Ukraine, not
as strong perhaps as Boris Johnson, but still reasonably strong.
Then on the more pragmatic rends, Western Europe really does
not want to see Vladimir Putin rewarded for his invasion

(03:29):
in twenty twenty two because they fear, with some justification,
that it could lead to another invasion, either of Ukraine
again or indeed of one of the Baltic states or
mold Over wherever. So that is the strategically important thing.
I think the third important thing for Starma is to
ensure that what ever happens at this meeting, there is

(03:51):
no rifft to be seen between the Western European leaders
and Donald Trump, because this meeting kind of is it
written to amount of possibilities that NATO could be under threat.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, well, if you go back to the beginning, that
was what I mean. When Trump stormed into office, he
basically said, well, you know, NATO's a pain, and you've
only paid two percent, and you need to pay five percent,
and you've been doing nothing in America pays the bills
and the whole thing look for a while to be
a complete cluster. Is Starmer in lockstep with Europe.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Probably slightly more inclined to the American position than the
French or Germans, but nowhere near us closely aligned. You
know that some of the visit grab states are aligned
with were allied actually with Russia. If we're honest, I

(04:45):
think Starmer sees himself in some justification it was a
kind of mid Atlantic stepping stone between the Europe and
the USA, and that's certainly the role which has been
playing for the last year. Didn't he before that before
even he was he became Prime minister.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
All right, might catch up on Thursday. Appreciate it very much.
Rot a little out of Britain, just a couple of
things in that particular part of the world. For more
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