He added: “It’s a backstop, you could say. I don’t think anybody’s going to play around if we’re there with a lot of workers.”
U.K. officials have backed the minerals deal for this reason, and had not made not clear exactly how much more Britain was asking for on top of the current U.S. presence in Europe. But Starmer’s administration is looking for a continuation of America’s commitment to NATO.
There is a Catch-22 here: The U.S. wants to know how Europe is going to step up before it commits, and the Europeans want to know that the U.S. will have their back before committing peacekeeping troops. Starmer will host European leaders in the U.K. on Sunday in a bid for further coordination.
‘Special man’
The comments came as Starmer lavished praise on Trump Thursday.
Sitting across from the U.S. president in the Oval Office, Starmer — hailed by Trump just minutes before as a “special man” — told Trump: “On issues like Ukraine, thank you for changing the conversation to bring about the possibility that now we can have a peace deal.”
“We want to work with you to make sure that peace deal is enduring, that it lasts, that it’s a deal that goes down as an historic deal that nobody breaches,” he added.
In an attempt to smooth relations, Starmer presented Trump with a personal letter from King Charles III, a rare move from the British monarch, which included an invitation for a state visit.
Eli Stokols and Noah Keate contributed reporting.