British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said U.S. President Donald Trump has a point that European countries must bear a greater burden for their collective self-defence, the New York Times said on Sunday.
“We need to think about defence and security in a more immediate way,” he told the newspaper in an interview.
Starmer is trying to assemble a multinational military force that he calls a coalition of the willing to keep Ukraine’s skies, ports and borders secure after any peace settlement, the report said.
On Trump, Starmer said, “On a person-to-person basis, I think we have a good relationship.” But, he said, the U.S. leader’s actions, from imposing a 25% tariff on British steel to berating President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine, had generated “quite a degree of disorientation”.
According to an Al Jazeera report quoting The Financial Times, Europe’s biggest military powers are drawing up plans to take on greater responsibilities for the continent’s defence from the United States, including a pitch to the administration of President Donald Trump, for a managed transfer over the next five to 10 years.
The United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Nordic countries are among those engaged in the informal but structured discussions that would reshape the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) security bloc, The Financial Times newspaper reported on Thursday, citing four European officials involved, the Al Jazeera report said.
According to the FT report, Al Jazeera said, the talks are an attempt to avoid possible chaos should the US unilaterally declare its withdrawal from the transatlantic security alliance that has protected Europe for the past 80 years.
(With inputs from Reuters)
