LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday praised the hundreds of British troops who died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq “alongside our allies,” in an oblique rebuke of US Vice President JD Vance, who has questioned the merits of a potential European peacekeeping force in Ukraine following the signing of any peace agreement between the country and Russia.
In his opening remarks before the start of a weekly parliamentary question session, Starmer specifically paid tribute to six British soldiers who died on patrol in Afghanistan when their vehicle was struck by an explosive. Thursday marks the 13-year anniversary of their deaths.
“These men fought and died for their country, our country,” Starmer told the House of Commons. “And across the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 642 individuals died fighting for Britain alongside our allies, many more were wounded.”
Without directly referencing Vance, the prime minister said he and all lawmakers will “never forget their bravery and their sacrifice.”
Vance said in an interview with Fox News this week that an economic pact with Kyiv sought by President Donald Trump “is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”
Though Vance has subsequently sought to head off criticism by noting that he did not specifically name any countries, his “random country” comment prompted anger, particularly in the UK and France.
Peacekeeping mission
British troops fought alongside the US in Afghanistan and Iraq in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US, while French troops were deployed to Afghanistan though not during the 2003 US-led war in Iraq.
Both Starmer, who has been careful not to criticize Trump over the past few days of frantic diplomacy, and French President Emmanuel Macron, have said that they are ready to deploy troops in a peacekeeping capacity in Ukraine after any peace deal, but have said that they would require further support from the US
No other countries have yet indicated they will be sending troops to any peacekeeping mission.
Trump has offered no US security guarantee and has, like Vance, indicated that an economic deal with Ukraine, that sees American money and people in the country but no forces, would be enough to fend off any future attack by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Minerals deal
In his overnight address to Congress, Trump appeared to soften his tone with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky following last Friday’s fractious meeting in the Oval Office.
Trump and Zelensky had been expected to sign off on a minerals deal, intended in part to pay back the US for aid it has sent Kyiv since the start of the war. But that plan was scrapped as the visit was ended abruptly after their meeting.
Starmer said he is doing “everything he can” to ensure the US and Europe are “working together on lasting peace” for Ukraine.
Vance’s interview with Fox News was recorded hours before a White House official confirmed on Monday evening that Trump had directed a pause of US assistance to Ukraine as he seeks to Zelensky to engage in negotiations to end the war which Russia launched in Feb. 2022.
Starmer praises sacrifice of British troops in Afghanistan, Iraq in oblique rebuke to Vance
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Starmer praises sacrifice of British troops in Afghanistan, Iraq in oblique rebuke to Vance
- Starmer specifically paid tribute to six British soldiers who died on patrol in Afghanistan when their vehicle was struck by an explosive
- “These men fought and died for their country, our country,” Starmer told the House of Commons
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump claims otherwise, posting that “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy,” Carney said. “What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 percent, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3 percent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We have a , but based off — based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I’m not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos.”
Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the US under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu” and he warned about coercion by great powers — without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed into the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
