Opposition to NATO in Paris, October 2022 - Photo: Tehran Times

On Monday, February 17, Prime Minister Kier Starmer met with French President Macron and other EU leaders in Paris in what was called an "informal summit". Reports say that the hastily-called gathering following the Munich Security Conference "was part of a flurry of diplomacy expected to centre on Ukraine this week as Trump officials prepare to start talks with Russia on their own" [1]. These US-Russia talks started in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the same day as the "informal summit", and left the European leaders complaining that Trump's envoys had prepared "talks with Russia over ending the war in Ukraine without them".

However, the gathering in Paris excluded many EU countries. The Paris talks included only leaders from France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the president of the European Council, the president of the European Commission and the secretary general of NATO. The claim that these talks were actually an "informal summit" is spurious. This meeting was another vain attempt by Britain and some other European powers, who have been straining at the US leash to escalate the war in Ukraine to "defeat Russia", to try and ensure that Ukraine at least remains NATO's proxy against Russia for the future in any peace deal.

Starmer had an article published in The Telegraph on the same day [2] saying that the UK is "ready to play a leading role in accelerating work on security guarantees for Ukraine. This includes further support for Ukraine's military, where the UK has already committed £3 billion a year until at least 2030. But it also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary." Macron also stated that France was prepared to send troops to Ukraine.

However, the "informal summit" also produced more disagreements with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying that any debate now on sending peacekeepers to Ukraine was "completely premature" and "highly inappropriate" while the war is ongoing. He said he was "a little irritated" about the peacekeeping debate "at the wrong time". Which indicates he is not happy to discuss sending troops before the German elections this Sunday because of the wide-scale opposition to any war escalation involving Germany and German troops. According to the same reports "his views are shared by Poland and Spain, among other nations, especially given the vagueness about what any security guarantee would mean".

Starmer for his part has been called to a meeting with US President Donald Trump next week in Washington as has Macron. On this, reports say that Starmer is seeking to present his "peace-keeping plan" to Trump and to foster ties with Trump in a "delicate balancing act of maintaining good relations with both the new US administration and the European Union". Despite Brexit "he is also hoping the UK can act as a bridge between Europe and the United States over the war in Ukraine, stressing that Britain could have 'a unique role' in helping to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine" [3]. In other words, Britain and the powers of Old Europe are trying to continue their desperate attempts to stop the collapse of their ambitions to continue to control Ukraine and continue to use it as a proxy against Russia. As Starmer says in his article: "While Nato membership may take time, we should continue to support Ukraine's irreversible path to joining the alliance." However, Trump himself has been force d to admit that this was one of the principal reasons that the US and NATO allies provoked the war in Ukraine under Biden. Starmer is so shameless. In his visit to Ukraine last month he had signed Britain's own "Landmark 100 Year Partnership Agreement" with Zelenskyy [4] for a "strategic dialogue" that only sees the war on hold for the "foreseeable future", which is also in the service of Britain's imperialist ambitions, its monopolies and war industries in Britain and those it wants in Ukraine.

The working class and people are not going to be behind prolonging the war and having British or NATO troops in Ukraine. Everybody knows that it is a proxy war of the US and NATO with Russia using Ukrainian lives to fight Russia and must be ended in a permanent peace. The British and the old European powers are not seeking a permanent peace but are being forced to make concessions whilst further attempting to influence any peace deal that is made with Ukraine and Russia. Their aim is to continue to embed themselves in Ukraine and retain Ukraine as their proxy. This is why they desperately trying to send NATO troops as "peacekeepers" and build new military and naval bases occupying Ukraine and the Black Sea themselves in any agreement.

Britain's nefarious role in escalating the Ukraine war and being the first to supply modern battle tanks and Storm Shadow missiles and oppose peace has to be condemned by the British people. The British government, their military and armament industries cannot be a part of the solution to the war in Ukraine which they helped provoke and continue to arm and escalate as we write. Sending British or NATO troops to Ukraine must be opposed as a further escalation of the conflict and a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia supported. The anti-war movement is taking a vital stand on this issue, as is evident in the meetings that the Stop the War Coalition are organising around the country. Britain's dangerous warmongering must be blocked. The anti-war movement must prevail!

Notes
1. European Leaders Meet in Paris as US Pushes Ahead With Ukraine Plan
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/world/europe/europe-paris-ukraine-talks.html
2. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's article in The Telegraph: 17 February 2025
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-minister-keir-starmers-article-in-the-telegraph-17-february-2025
3. Gulf News
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/starmer-to-meet-trump-next-week-uk-government/ar-AA1zdoTE
4. UK and Ukraine sign "Landmark 100 Year Partnership Agreement": Starmer's Vain Attempt to Ensure Ukraine Remains NATO's Proxy against Russia, Workers' Weekly January 25 2025
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-25/ww25-01/ww25-01-01.htm

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