Starmer after White House talks with Biden: UK has stood with Ukraine

The Star

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sept 13 expressed strong support for Ukraine after his meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00Mr. Prime Minister, welcome, welcome back to the White House.

00:16As I've often said, there's no issue of global consequence for the United States and

00:20the great Britain that can't work together and haven't worked together.

00:22The United States is committed to standing with you to help Ukraine as it defends against

00:27Russia's onslaught and aggression.

00:28I'm clear that Putin will not prevail in this war, and the people of Ukraine will prevail.

00:35Today we'll discuss our work to secure a deal in the Middle East to release the main hostages

00:40that are being held by Hamas, bring an immediate ceasefire, and increase the flow of humanitarian

00:46aid to Gaza.

00:47And it's really important, as great allies, that special relationship to have this time

00:54to talk about the global issues you have just identified.

00:56Secretary, Stephen Lammy, right, do you persuade the American president to allow President

01:03Zelensky to fire missiles into Russian territory?

01:06Well, we've had a long and productive discussion on a number of fronts, including Ukraine,

01:11as you'd expect, the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific, talking strategically about tactical decisions.

01:18This isn't about a particular decision, and we'll obviously pick up again in hunger, in

01:23just a few days' time, with a wider group of individuals.

01:27But this is a really important invitation for the president to have this level of discussion

01:32about those critical issues.

01:34But with President Putin threatening war with NATO, aren't you creating the impression that

01:39he's intimidating you?

01:40Well, there's only one reason we're having these discussions, and that is that Putin

01:44has illegally invaded Ukraine, and the quickest way to resolve this, obviously, lies through

01:52what Putin actually does, because it's for him to end this.

01:57But we are having a discussion.

01:58We've stood with Ukraine.

01:59Ukraine has a right to self-defence, and we've stood united, not just with our allies here

02:05in the US, but across with our NATO allies.

02:08That's very, very important to us, because today was about having a chance to talk, not

02:13just about a particular step or tactic, but the strategy in relation to Ukraine.

02:18Well, we had a wide-ranging discussion about strategy in Ukraine, of course, in the Middle

02:24East, and other parts of the world.

02:26This wasn't a meeting about a particular capability.

02:30That wasn't why we got our heads down today.

02:32It was to allow ourselves the space, which we took, the time which we took, to have a

02:36strategic discussion so that tactical decisions can be seen within the wider strategy.

02:41And it was a really good invitation for the president.

02:43We've had a very productive, and we've come to a strong position.

02:46I'm very pleased that we've had this discussion.

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