Britain’s Starmer seeks strong ties with both the EU and Donald Trump

Keir Starmer traveled to Brussels on Monday, becoming the first British prime minister to attend a European Union leaders’ meeting since the UK left the bloc five years ago.

Starmer headed to dinner with EU leaders at Brussels’ neoclassical Egmont Palace, walking a diplomatic and economic tightrope. He is seeking to rebuild ties with the EU while avoiding tariffs from protectionist US President Donald Trump. Trump has slapped import taxes on the United States’ biggest trading partners – Canada, Mexico, and China – and says he will also impose tariffs on goods from the 27-nation EU, with which the US has a trade deficit. His attitude toward Britain is more ambiguous. Trump said early Monday that the UK is “out of line,” but “…I think that one can be worked out.” Starmer said Sunday that he had stressed to Trump that he wanted a strong trading relationship with the US. “We’ve got a fair and balanced trading relationship which benefits both sides of the Atlantic,” the prime minister’s spokesman, Dave Pares, said Monday. “The UK looks forward to working with the Trump administration,” he added.

Trump’s trade battles complicate Starmer’s aim of a reset with the EU after years of bitterness over Brexit. It’s already complicated enough by Britain’s domestic politics. Starmer wants to remove some of the red tape and other barriers to trade with the bloc imposed by Brexit, but has ruled out the two things that would make the most difference–rejoining the bloc’s customs union or single market. He also has resisted EU pressure for a youth mobility deal that would let young people from Britain and the EU live and work in the other’s territory for a time. Starmer’s center-left Labor Party government is wary of riling populist politicians like Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who is poised to pounce on any perceived betrayal of Brexit.

Starmer is aiming for relatively modest changes, such as making it easier for artists to tour and for professionals to have their qualifications recognized, and seeking closer cooperation on law enforcement and security. Ahead of the meeting in Brussels, Starmer said he would stress the importance of keeping up the pressure with sanctions on Russia to squeeze its war machine targeting Ukraine. Britain and the EU say they will hold a full leaders’ summit later this year. Politicians in the bloc have welcomed the change of tone from Starmer’s euroskeptic Conservative predecessors, but want concrete proposals and, inevitably, compromises from the UK.

Starmer is also due to meet NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Brussels for talks focused on support for Ukraine. Trump’s return to office has raised questions over US support for Kyiv–and for the trans-Atlantic military alliance itself. Trump has said that NATO countries should spend at least five percent of their GDPs on defense, up from the current two percent target. He also has not ruled out using military force to seize control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark. Britain spends 2.3 percent of GDP on defense and says it will increase it to 2.5 percent.