The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has ignored this Thursday the requests of the United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, so that Washington gives security guarantees to Ukraine so that Russia does not attack its territory again, just as it did, in addition to asking him to give his space at the negotiating table of a possible peace agreement to the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelenski. Instead, the American president has trusted the agreement on the exploitation of Ukrainian natural resources and in the word of Vladimir Putin as the guarantees that kyiv needs for his protection.
Keir Starmer, visiting the White House, has tried to seduce (without success) to Donald Trump, deploying charisma both in the meeting between both political leaders in the oval office, where he has given him an invitation letter of King Carlos III to make a state visit to the United Kingdom -who has accepted -as in the subsequent press conference, where he has praised the “benevolence” of the American “Opportunity” of a “historical peace agreement” with Ukraine.
However, the British prime minister has also been very forceful by insisting that any peace agreement that ends the war in Ukraine must be “durable” and “fair” for kyiv. Stermer, has even appealed to World War II, a period of history that Trump frequently resorts to his speeches, to remember that “you have to win peace” after the conflict. “The story must be on the side of the pacifier, not the invader,” said the leader of British Labor.
Despite the effort, Starmer has not achieved the main objective of his trip to the White House: to persuade Donald Trump that only a US security guarantee could deter Russia from a new aggression to Ukraine, something that has rejected the president of the United States, claiming that A is sufficient to guarantee stability in the region.
The rare earth agreement as “guarantee”
Trump has assured that this agreement will provide Washington with a direct economic interest in Ukraine, which, according to his argument, would serve to deter Russia to undertake new aggressions. “We will be a barrier because we will be there, working,” he said in the Oval Office.
In the subsequent press conference, the US president has boasted from the Covenant, which will include oil, gas and rare earth, a key sector for technology and currently dominated by China. “I think we are going to dig, dig and excavate. I think we must do it,” he said smiling.
This agreement, which Trump presents as compensation for the billions of dollars in military assistance that US has already sent to Ukraine, does not contemplate any type of specific security guarantee, something that kyiv and its European allies have repeatedly claimed.
Starmer has not got Trump either commit to the US acting as a “barrier” if, after a stop the fire, France, the United Kingdom and other countries deploy troops in Ukraine to maintain peace. Asked about it, the British prime minister has described his conversation with Trump as “productive”, but has admitted that the US president prefers to first close an agreement and then discuss his durability.
Trump relies on Putin
The US president has also expressed his confidence that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will fulfill his word and will not attack Ukraine again if a peace agreement is reached. “I think he will fulfill his word,” said Trump, although he has clarified that a definitive pact has not yet been reached. The president has insisted that the mere presence of the United States in Ukraine, thanks to the agreement on rare earths, will act as a “de facto” security guarantee.
On the possible deployment of peace forces in Ukraine, Trump has stressed that it is first necessary to reach an agreement between the parties. “Putting security in Ukraine is the easy part, the agreement is the difficult part,” he said. Starmer, meanwhile, has assured that the United Kingdom will be one of the first countries to support Ukraine after a possible agreement. Asked if the United States would support the British in case of sending troops, Trump has responded with irony: “I have always thought that the British do not need much help. They can take care of themselves very well.”
Ukraine and NATO
Trump has also categorically rejected the possibility of Ukraine entering NATO, despite Zelenski’s demands and much of the Ukrainian population. “It will not happen that Ukraine joins NATO,” said the president, although he has been open to work so that kyiv recovers the territory occupied by Russia.
Finally, Trump has insisted that he is the main facilitator of a hypothetical peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, and has defended that, if he had not won the elections, the United States would not have resumed contacts with Moscow. “I think we are very advanced in a peace agreement,” he said, although he has made it clear that, for him, the priority remains the economic interest of his country in Ukraine, and not the security guarantees that his allies claim so much.
Tariffs and commercial relations
In addition to the war in Ukraine, both leaders have discussed the “reciprocal” tariffs that Trump announced on February 13 to match the rates that US business partners apply to US exports. The president has assured that there are “many possibilities” that the United Kingdom is exempted from these tariffs. “We are going to end a good commercial agreement, one way or another,” said Trump, who has joked saying that the United Kingdom could get rid of rates to be a country where he himself has invested in golf courses.
