The British PM has been in the room twice with U.S. President Donald Trump since they arrived at the G7 summit, but has not been offered a bilateral meeting. He was also absent from a meeting between Trump, Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which took place separately from Tuesday’s working session on Ukraine.
Starmer denied he had been “snubbed” and said Trump had raised no concerns with him about the U.K.’s defense spending or the announcement of a new social media ban for children.
The prime minister said he had had “a very honest and frank” and “productive conversation” with the U.S. leader as they sat together for two hours at Monday’s welcome dinner.
Starmer claimed there had been a “mood change” towards “real unity in the G7 on Ukraine, a real sense that things are changing, that Ukraine is now taking territory — which it has done in the last few months — rather than defending territory, and that the impact of sanctions is quite great on Russia.”
His comments came after a roundtable on Ukraine, where G7 partners agreed to ramp up economic pressure on Russia.
Starmer also hailed the U.S. deal with Iran as a “big breakthrough” and said he was discussing with Macron “how we can get the Strait of Hormuz running freely as quickly as possible.”