The UK has sought to play down talks of a rift with the US over Ukraine ahead of a crucial Nato summit during which Kyiv is seeking assurances over the road to membership as it fights Russia’s invasion.
Joe Biden called the relationship between the two countries “rock solid” as he held talks with Rishi Sunak at Downing Street – but the prime minister is having to tread carefully on the idea of Ukraine joining the defence alliance.
While Britain strongly favours a clear route to Nato membership, Washington remains hesitant. The US president has described Kyiv’s bid as “premature” and claimed: “I don’t think it’s ready for membership in Nato.”
Mr Sunak is expected to use this week’s Nato summit in Lithuania to push the US and other allies less certain over membership to agree to language signalling support for Ukraine joining the organisation at some point – but a timetable is not expected to be discussed.
The PM will also call for all Nato allies to immediately meet the ambition they set almost two decades ago to spend 2 per cent of their GDP on defence.
Though all attendees agree that Ukraine cannot join during the war – a move which would pull the wider West into direct conflict with Russia – UK officials are confident Nato leaders will agree to issue strong support for the idea of a pathway for Ukraine’s future inside the Western alliance.
Mr Sunak’s spokesperson said that while “we do want to support Ukraine on the pathway to joining the alliance, the exact mechanisms for that are for discussion with Nato allies”.
It came as Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said Nato leaders had already reached “consensus” to drop the Membership Action Plan (MAP) which is normally required of prospective Nato members.
Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak during their No 10 garden meeting
“I welcome this long-awaited decision that shortens our path to Nato. It is also the best moment to offer clarity on the invitation to Ukraine to become a member,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mr Kuleba had previously said that dropping the formality of the MAP was a “minimum” the wartorn country wanted to see this week – urging Nato to offer a “meaningful” move towards membership at this week’s summit.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday he was “confident that all allies will agree on a very clear message” on Ukraine’s future membership – but admitted there was no consensus on “concrete steps” ahead.
No 10 also played down talk of a rift with the US over cluster bombs. While Washington has said it will supply the controversial munitions to Ukraine, Mr Sunak has been clear that he is standing by an international convention the UK has signed to ban the weapons.
Mr Sunak appeared to make little effort to persuade Mr Biden not to follow through on the pledge to supply the weapons – although No 10 said it had complied with Britain’s legal requirement to discourage the use of cluster bombs by raising the issue.
Volodymyr Zelensky with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg
The PM’s official spokesperson said providing the weapons was “a difficult choice for the US” that had been “forced on them by Russia’s war of aggression”.
The two leaders “discussed the commitments that the UK has under that convention, both not to produce or use cluster munitions and to discourage their use”, said the PM’s spokesperson. No 10 also acknowledged that Ukraine had requested the weapons to defend itself against the Russian invasion.
Mr Biden said he “couldn’t be meeting with a closer friend and a greater ally”, while Mr Sunak hailed the US and UK as “two of the firmest allies”, as the pair held talks for around 40 minutes alongside secretary of state Antony Blinken and foreign secretary James Cleverly.
Mr Sunak will also call for all allies to start spending 2 per cent of their GDP on defence – and press Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the need for Sweden to be admitted to Nato.
Mr Sunak will also confirm an eight-fold increase in the UK’s production capacity of 155 mm artillery ammunition in a £190m deal with BAE Systems set to create more than 100 jobs.
The PM said the UK is investing record amounts in defence “to make our armed forces more lethal and more deployable”, adding: “And that’s something we need to see across Nato – starting with meeting the 2 per cent commitment.”
Meanwhile, former Nato secretary general Lord Robertson said Tory defence secretary Ben Wallace had always been unlikely to replace Mr Stoltenberg because of Brexit.
“I don’t think that the French were terribly keen on somebody who had been so associated with Brexit and with Boris Johnson,” he told LBC. “I think that’s unfair because I think that Ben Wallace was a good candidate.”
