Leaders from across Europe have gathered at a English country mansion for a summit clouded by worries about whether the United States will remain a reliable ally if Donald Trump wins a second presidency.
Newly elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed some 45 heads of government to discuss migration, energy security and the threat from Russia as he seeks to restore relations between the UK and its European Union neighbours four years after their acrimonious divorce.
Starmer told the European Political Community gathering the UK planned to take a more active role on the world stage, especially when it came to Ukraine's fight against Russia’s invasion and to people-smuggling gangs organising irregular migration.
He told fellow leaders the UK would be “a friend and a partner, ready to work with you - not part of the European Union, but very much part of Europe. Not focused on the differences between us, but on the values that we share.
“Our first task here today is to confirm our steadfast support for Ukraine, to unite once again behind those values that we cherish and to say we will face down aggression on this continent together,” he said, adding the threat from Russia “reaches right across Europe”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was a key guest at the meeting, aimed at shoring up Europe’s support for his country’s defence and discussing ways to defend democracy.
The UK accuses Moscow of seeking to undermine European democracies with cyberattacks, disinformation and sabotage.
When Britain agreed earlier in 2024 to hold the one-day summit, Conservative leader Rishi Sunak was prime minister.
His defeat in a July 4 election means it’s Starmer who welcomed leaders to Blenheim Palace, which was the birthplace of World War II prime minister Winston Churchill.
The guest list includes German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
The meeting is the fourth for the EPC group, a brainchild of Macron that was established in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shattered Europe’s sense of security.
Starmer’s centre-left government aims to rebuild ties with the EU strained by years of wrangling over Brexit divorce terms.
A key priority is a new UK-EU security pact that Starmer hopes to strike soon.
“We are confident that a new chapter will be opened with the UK,” European Council President Charles Michel said as he arrived.
The UK plans to work more closely with the European police agency Europol against people smuggling to help beef up border security following Starmer’s decision to scrap the Conservatives’ contentious plan to send migrants arriving in the UK by boat to Rwanda.
Thoughts will likely stray to the US, where the assassination attempt on Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, underscored how febrile and polarised politics has become before the November election.
Trump’s scepticism about NATO has long worried US allies. Trump’s choice of senator JD Vance, an opponent of US military aid to Ukraine, as vice-presidential running mate has heightened concerns.
“European countries must stand on their own legs more than ever,” Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof said.
That sentiment was echoed by several other leaders, but not by Hungary's pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has riled other EU nations with rogue meetings about Ukraine, including with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
