PM says UK does not have to choose between Europe and US, before meeting EU leaders in Brussels. Keir Starmer has said he wants an “ambitious security partnership” with the EU, while insisting the UK does not have to choose between Europe and the US. The prime minister was speaking before meeting EU leaders in Brussels to discuss security and defence, the first time a British leader has attended a European Council meeting since Britain left the EU five years ago.

Starmer said he wanted “an ambitious UK-EU security partnership to bolster Nato”. Facing criticism that the UK had been vague in its hopes for this pact, he said it should cover military technology, research and development, improved mobility of forces across Europe, protection of critical infrastructure and deepening industrial collaboration to boost production. “We can’t be commentators when it comes to matters of peace on our continent,” he told reporters. “We must lead and that’s what I’ve determined that we will do.”.

Starmer was speaking at Nato headquarters, after meeting the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, who reiterated that allies needed to spend “considerably more” than the current target of 2% of GDP. Asked whether he was worried by Donald Trump’s refusal to rule out hitting the UK with tariffs, the prime minister said “obviously, it’s early days”. “I think what’s really important is open and strong trading relations and that’s been the basis of my discussions with President Trump,” he said. “I know that intense US-EU discussions are planned.”.

UK government officials have already drawn up retaliatory tariffs that could be quickly imposed on US goods if Trump decided to start a trade war. He insisted the UK did not have to choose between the EU and the US, when asked if he would weaken his reset with the bloc to keep Trump happy. “Both of these relations are very important to us. We are not choosing between them, but that’s historically been the position of the UK for many, many decades.”.

Starmer has been invited to attend a dinner at the stately Palais d’Egmont in central Brussels, where Edward Heath signed the treaty to bring the UK into the then European Economic Community in 1972. Arriving for the meeting, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, who last month said he dreamed of Breturn, said it was the moment for the EU and UK “to get as close as possible again”. Poland has the EU’s rotating presidency and Tusk said it was his idea to invite Starmer to have the UK as “close as possible” on security issues and “to find ways to eliminate or reduce barriers in trade between the UK and Europe”.

But a majority of member states insist that the UK signs up to the EU’s demands on fishing rights and a youth mobility scheme as part of a broader package to resetting the relationship. Before Starmer arrived, the EU27 held day-long talks to discuss defence, but the meeting was overshadowed by Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on the bloc. The Nato secretary general downplayed Trump’s imposition of tariffs and looming trade war, saying he was “absolutely convinced” that Nato could deal with trade tensions between the US and Canada. Rutte said European defence without Nato was “a silly thought” and would not work.