US President Joe Biden told Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer that he welcomed his desire for closer ties with European counterparts, according to a UK government statement on Thursday.
Starmer met Biden in the White House’s Oval Office on Wednesday where the two men discussed UK and US ties, the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and England’s soccer win in the semifinals of Euro 2024.
“The President welcomed the prime minister’s recent comments on establishing closer relationships with our European counterparts, as well as the UK’s commitment to AUKUS,” the British government said in a statement, referring to the security pact between Britain, the US and Australia.
“They reflected that at a time when we face growing challenges across the world, we are at our strongest when we unite and work together.”
Starmer was in Washington for the NATO summit, where he also met European leaders including Germany’s Olaf Scholz.
Starmer has said he wants Britain to reset relations with the European Union to improve cooperation in areas such as security and trade, seeking to dampen the rancour that stemmed from Britain’s 2016 referendum to leave the bloc.
However he has ruled out any move to rejoin the European Union’s single market or customs union.
The two leaders also agreed they must do whatever it takes to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, and discussed their joint desire for a ceasefire in Gaza to get hostages out, aid in and make progress toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Biden welcomed Starmer’s desire for closer EU ties, UK government says
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Biden welcomed Starmer’s desire for closer EU ties, UK government says
- Starmer met Biden in the White House’s Oval Office on Wednesday where the two men discussed UK and US ties
Russia sentences Briton who fought for Ukraine to 13 years in prison camp
- The jailed Briton was named as 30-year-old Hayden Davies by Russia’s Prosecutor General
- State prosecutors released a video of Davies being questioned as he stood behind bars
MOSCOW: A British man who fought for Ukraine against the Russian army has been sentenced to 13 years in a maximum security prison camp after being convicted of being a paid mercenary, Russian prosecutors said on Thursday.
The jailed Briton was named as 30-year-old Hayden Davies by Russia’s Prosecutor General which said he had been tried by a court in a part of Russian-controlled Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian regions which Moscow claimed as its own in 2022 in a move Kyiv and the West rejected an illegal land grab.
State prosecutors released a video of Davies being questioned as he stood behind bars, dressed in a black coat and with a shaven head. He says in the video that he had traveled to Ukraine to join the International Legion which paid him $400-500 per month.
The International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine is a unit of the Ukrainian military made up of foreign volunteers.
Asked if he pleaded guilty to the charge against him, Davies says “yeah” and nods his head.
It was not clear whether Davies was speaking under duress and there was no immediate comment from the British Foreign Office.
London in February said Davies was not a mercenary but a Prisoner of War entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions. It also condemned what it called Moscow’s exploitation of prisoners of war “for political and propaganda purposes.”
Russian prosecutors said on Thursday that Davies had arrived in western Ukraine in August 2024, signed a contract to fight for the International Legion, undergone military training, and then fought against the Russian army in Donetsk.
Davies had been captured by Russia in winter 2024 carrying a US-made assault rifle and ammunition, they said.
British media have reported that Davies once served in the British army and is married and originally from Southampton.
A Russian court jailed another British man, James Scott Rhys Anderson, for 19 years in March after finding him guilty of fighting for Ukraine in the Kursk region of western Russia.
