It sounds doubtful Starmer is going to be able to rally large immediate military funding, increases are in the future and many are for humanitarian and reconstruction only. . Only UK and France have offered troops, so far. They are meeting today with European countries, hopefully they will have some good news soon.
The lack of security support from other nations maybe problematic for Ukraine.
I do admire Starmer, he's stepped up to try and rally Europe. I hope the European countries will give him the support he needs to offer Zelenskyy security.
Moo
Sir Keir Starmer also says he believes the US president wants peace, despite last week's Oval Office row with Ukraine's leader.
www.bbc.com
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"There are a number of different routes people can go down. One is to ramp up the rhetoric as to how outraged we all are or not."
He said the other option was to "roll up my sleeves" and quickly phone both men - and then also to speak to French President Emmanuel Macron about the role that the leading nations of Europe would play.
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Earlier this week, the PM announced he would cut the foreign aid budget to fund an increase in defence funding to
2.5% of national income by 2027, which led to the resignation of his International Development Minister Anneliese Dodds.
The move came after Trump had called on the US's Nato allies to increase defence spending to 5% of their respective national incomes.
France spends 2.1% on defence and has pledged to double this by 2030.
Sir Keir urged all European nations to review their defence budgets, saying: "Generally Europe needs to do more in its own defence and security and that's why I've said we need to increase spending, we've got to increase capability .
Asked to explain what a European "coalition of the willing" he said: "We need to be clear what a European security guarantee [in Ukraine] would look like.
"We've got to find those countries in Europe that are prepared to be a bit more forward-leaning."
He said the UK and France were leading the thinking on it but added: "The more the better in this."
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