“Tightrobe”: Britain tries to bridge the expansion of the Atlantic

Five years after leaving the European Union, the UK may finally have found a new role on the global stage.

President Trump overturned the overture and transatlantic alliance to Russia, and British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer attempted to act as a bridge between Europe and the United States.

Starmer and his top aides called Ukrainian President Voldimi Zelensky and were counselled in a face-to-face meeting with Trump on how to fix the fence after a crazy White House meeting. The Prime Minister vigorously approached the US president to ensure the safety of the United States, in order to stop Russian President Putin from future attacks.

In his high-wire diplomacy, Starmer is reviving the role Britain played on a daily basis before Brexit. He has a comparison between the perplexed President George W. Bush of the 2003 Iraq war and former Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair, who tried to mediate European leaders.

Of course, the construction of Mr. Blair's bridge did not go well. France and Germany refused to join Bush's “rejoiced coalition” against Iraq, and British lockstep alignment with the US hinted at their relationship with their European neighbours.

Now, Hoshi put together a new “Joy Alliance” to protect Ukraine, and he is faced with an equally tricky balancing act. He is stuck near the US while having enough horrific European military deterrence enough to persuade the American Air Cover and Intelligence Telecommunications Force to provide American Air Cover and Intelligence support.

On Saturday, Starmer will hold a virtual summit meeting of as many as 25 leaders from Europe, NATO, Canada, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand, helping Britain support his coalition, where France coexists. He is expected to announce additional countries that will supply military or logistical support to a coalition designed to serve as a shield against Russia after a settlement with Ukraine.

After talking to leaders through VideoConference, Starmer may continue his lobbying campaign with Trump for security assurances.

Given that Trump was elicited between Ukraine's fierce criticism and the threat of imposing sanctions on rejected Russia, it is no one's guess whether Starma and Macron will be successful. Putin responded carefully this week to the offer of a 30-day ceasefire made by Ukraine and the United States, rejecting all the talks of European peacekeepers.

“Of course there are risks,” said British diplomat Peter Ricketts, who served as Prime Minister David Cameron's national security adviser. “But I think the priority is high risk of avoidable catastrophes.”

He said Blair failed like a bridge because the division between European countries in Iraq is insurmountable. Starmer's challenge is a volatile US president who appears to be determined to reset ties with Russia, and is openly hostile to the European Union.

“The centre will do our best to avoid choosing between Europe and the US,” Ricketts said. In dealing with Trump, he added:

He said he was helped by his veteran and widely respected national security adviser Jonathan Powell. Jonathan Powell traveled to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, laying the foundation for Zelensky's settlement with the White House, and consulted Washington this week with Trump's national security adviser Michael Waltz.

Mr. Blair's former chief of staff, Powell, served as the UK's chief negotiator for the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. He was also on hand for his fruitless efforts to bring France and Germany into Blair's military operations against Iraq.

Even before the crisis erupted against Ukraine, Stage's government called for close ties with the continent, not only in defense and security, but also in trade and economic policy.

But thanks to Brexit, it appears that Trump has placed the UK in a separate category from the European Union. The president has suggested, for example, that he may not target the UK with cleaning fees, although he is not exempt from global tariffs on steel and aluminum.

“If you put one foot in, it's good for the UK in the current context that one foot comes out,” said Mujitaba Rahman, an analyst at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.

“If that's a true transatlantic rift, it's better to have the protective power that the EU offers, at least in some areas. And in such a context, the UK will pilot things better with a two-foot inn.”

At first, re-engagement between Hoshi and Brock was clearly a half-step process. After coming to power last July, he set out to develop post-Brexit relationships in various European capitals, but ruled out two prominent measures that could significantly promote trade.

His careful approach has said he fears that he will anger voters who support Brexit, and that he will give ammunition to Brexit champion and anti-immigrant leader Nigel Farage.

However, the shockwave caused by Trump's recent declarations on Ukraine and Russia has driven some obstacles to a wider reset. They show that even the contestants and those on the right in Britain acknowledge the need for greater adjustments to European defence.

“It changes the whole context and puts everything else in perspective,” said Ricketts, who served as the French ambassador.

Ivan Rogers, former British ambassador to the European Union, said Starmer's diplomatic overlapping lifting impressed other European leaders who have become accustomed to the absent or vaguely hostile Britain.

“All of that reminded people that the British were involved again, and they could be even more serious,” Rogers said. “You're facing such an existential crisis in the EU right now and you're feeling a little different.”

It could pave the way for deeper British remarriage, especially if Europeans decide to increase military spending cooperation by creating new initiatives outside the existing structure of the European Union. Such initiatives allow countries, including the UK, to agree to common standards on issues such as military subsidies and arms procurement.

It essentially “creates a single defense market that has never been seen before,” Rogers said.

Regarding all the potential benefits, Rogers, who worked on Downing Street during the Iraq War, said he worried that Britain's role as a transatlantic bridge would be hampered by efforts to use post-Brexit status to avoid tariffs imposed by Trump.

“My concern is that the UK can show others that they want to have it in both ways,” Rogers said. “We want to become a bridge, have a transatlantic alliance and be the centre of it, while at the same time claiming that we are very different from the EU and the US can exempt us from its tariff measures.”

“That's a little difficult,” he said, “to carry out both those arguments at once.”