A “number of countries” have today indicated they want to be a part of the plan to secure peace in Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this at a press conference after the summit of European leaders on Ukraine in London on Sunday, Ukrinform reports, citing Sky News.
The prime minister dubbed this the “coalition of the willing.”
“A number of countries have indicated today that they want to be part of the plan that we are developing. I’ll leave them to make their own statements about exactly how they want to make that contribution,” he said, without specifying, however, which countries these are.
According to him, the UK, France and others will now design a plan to stop the fighting in Ukraine and present this to the United States. The purpose of today’s meeting, he said, was to unite European allies behind this. Starmer added that “any deal must be backed by strength.”
“Every nation must contribute to that in the best way that it can, bringing different capabilities and support to the table, but all taking responsibility to act, all stepping up their own share of the burden,” Starmer said.
He announced that European leaders had agreed some important steps today.
“First, we will keep the military aid flowing and keep increasing the economic pressure on Russia to strengthen Ukraine now. Second, we agreed that any lasting peace must ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty and security, and Ukraine must be at the table. Third, in the event of a peace deal, we will keep boosting Ukraine’s own defensive capabilities to deter any future invasion. Fourth, we will go further to develop a coalition of the willing to defend a deal in Ukraine and to guarantee the peace,” he said.
Asked if the UK feels a greater personal responsibility for delivering a workable peace in Europe, Starmer said the country should “step up and lead.”
“We have done that historically as a nation and we need to do it again,” he said.
Asked why he thinks Russia will sign a peace deal created by Europe that they are not a part of, Starmer said “of course” a deal will have to include Russia but they “cannot dictate the terms.”
“If a deal is done it has to be defended. What we have seen in the past is a cessation of hostilities without any backup and that was regularly breached by Russia. That is a situation we need to avoid,” Starmer said.
He also said he disagreed with the idea that “the U.S. is an unreliable ally,” saying the U.S. has been reliable for many decades and continues to be so.
A meeting of European leaders on support for Ukraine was held in London on March 2, attended by representatives of Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Canada, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Romania. Also present were the Turkish foreign minister, the NATO secretary general and the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council.
Following the summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the European Commission would soon present a plan for rearming Europe.
Photo: Simon Dawson
Source: Starmer: 'Number of countries' want to be part of Ukraine peace plan
