UK's Starmer Hails European Unity on Ukraine, Tackling Migration

BLENHEIM PALACE, England (Reuters) - The United Kingdom's new prime minister, Keir Starmer, hailed European unity on Thursday 18 July 2024, saying deeper defence and security cooperation would better support Ukraine while shared intelligence could help tackle illegal migration.

Closing a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) of more than 40 nations at Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, Starmer said stronger relationships had been developed at the summit, the first step in his efforts to reset post-Brexit ties with the European Union.

His push for closer cooperation takes place against the backdrop of the possible election of Donald Trump, who alongside his pick for White House running mate, JD Vance, has suggested cutting US support for Ukraine, leaving Europe to cover the loss.

"We are going to deepen our cooperation on defence and security and on illegal migration, where we are resetting our approach," Starmer told a news conference at the EPC, a grouping distinct from the EU that was created after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"I'm proud to leave this summit with stronger relationships across Europe and to leave the EPC in a stronger position," said Starmer, who took office two weeks ago after an election that gave his Labour Party a large majority and ended fourteen years of Conservative rule.

He had offered other European leaders a clean slate, distancing himself from the previous government, which had threatened to withdraw from an international treaty on human rights and to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

"We are going to smash the [migrant trafficking] gangs ... and we'll do this, not by committing taxpayer money to gimmicks but with practical solutions that are in line with international law," he said.

Fresh from his first international trip as prime minister to NATO in Washington, Starmer took to the international stage again, calling on Europe to do more to support Ukraine.

Ukraine support

He said the summit had made a commitment to crack down on Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" of oil tankers used to break sanctions.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again called on Western allies to allow long-range strikes on Russia, in particular on military airfields.

So far, NATO members have taken varying approaches to how Ukraine can use the weapons they supply. But in a move that should better coordinate military support for Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said a command would be operational in Germany from September.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has the current rotating presidency of the EU and whose talks this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin drew a rebuke from other EU members as well as from Zelensky, took a different tone, saying the solution to the war in Ukraine would be found at the negotiating table, not the battlefield.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Orban was representing only his own country, not the EU.

EU ties

Starmer has been determined to reset EU ties after the UK's vote to leave the bloc in 2016 sparked years of rancour. He has said he does not see the UK rejoining the single market or customs union in his lifetime.

European leaders welcomed Starmer's defence cooperation plans, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying: "This is a great opportunity for a reset."

The NATO and EPC meetings gave Starmer the opportunity to advance early talks on the relationship with Europe.

Officials stress that the ultimate goal of negotiating a security pact, covering a range of areas such as energy, supply chains, pandemics and migration, will come much later in talks where the EU has been clear there will be no "cherry picking".

At Blenheim Palace, Starmer said the UK had agreed to increase its presence in Europol and would use £84 million ($109 million) of new funding for aid projects to try to stem illegal migration to his country.

"I'm really pleased that most of the leaders, if not all of them, are leaving here with a sense of renewed confidence in their relationship with the UK," said Starmer, who was due to entertain Macron over dinner later on Thursday.