Sir Keir Starmer, the UK Prime Minister, is set to meet with former President Donald Trump for the first time. Starmer is currently in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, but will take some time out of his schedule to meet with Trump at his Trump Tower base. The Prime Minister said that he sees the meeting as an opportunity to establish a relationship between the two individuals.
While in New York, Sir Keir will not be meeting with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The two have never met before and Starmer has previously expressed a desire to meet with both presidential candidates ahead of the upcoming US election. Speaking about Harris, the Prime Minister said that he still wanted to speak with her personally, but there were some diary challenges that would need to be overcome.
Starmer believes that building personal relationships on an international stage is crucially important to diplomacy. He sees meeting face-to-face with counterparts in different countries as essential to forging positive relationships. Harris, in the meantime, is currently in Washington engaged in talks alongside President Joe Biden with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Some Republicans have reacted angrily to Zelensky’s decision to visit an arms factory in the US President’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, with several top Democrats. As a result, it seems that Zelensky will not be meeting with Trump, as had been expected. When asked about the potential impact of a Donald Trump presidency on the UK’s ability to secure support for Ukraine, Starmer stressed the importance of the special relationship between the UK and US, saying, “that always sits above whoever holds the particular office, either in the US or the UK.
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
