Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, is greeted by President Donald Trump as he arrives at the White House in Washington, on Thursday, Feb. 27. (AP/Ben Curtis)
"On issues like Ukraine, thank you for changing the conversation to bring about the possibility that now we can have a peace deal," Starmer later said alongside Trump in the Oval Office. "And we want to work with you to make sure that peace deal is enduring, that it lasts, that it's a deal that goes down as a historic deal, that nobody breaches. And we'll work with you, to make sure that absolutely happens."
Starmer pushed the United States on Wednesday to provide a security "backstop" for any potential European peacekeepers in Ukraine, according to Reuters.
"I'm absolutely convinced that we need a lasting peace, not a ceasefire, and for that to happen we need security guarantees," he was quoted as saying. "Precisely what that layers up to, what that looks like, is obviously a subject of intense discussion."
Starmer reportedly added that his "concern is if there is a ceasefire without a backstop, it will simply give him [Putin] the opportunity to wait and to come again because his ambition in relation to Ukraine is pretty obvious, I think, for all to see."
Macron met with Trump in Washington this week on the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
"I've had very good conversations with President Putin. I've had very good conversations with President Zelenskyy. And until four weeks ago, nobody had conversations with anybody," Trump also said Wednesday. "It wasn't even a consideration. Nobody thought you could make peace. I think you can."
Zelenskyy is expected to meet with President Donald Trump on Friday in Washington, D.C. (Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance/Curtis Means/Daily Mail/Bloomberg)
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"We're going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides," Trump added.
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/uks-starmer-meets-trump-white-house-amid-divide-between-us-europe-over-ukraine-peace-deal