David Lammy has warned that failure to deal with Russia over Ukraine would cost the UK billions, as the US said Europe would be excluded from talks over the country’s future.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the foreign secretary said Ukraine had an “irreversible pathway towards Nato” and pointed to the approximate 7 per cent of gross domestic product that countries spent on defence in the Cold War, against the current UK rate of 2.3 per cent.
“Don’t think that not meeting the challenge now somehow saves us money down the line,” Mr Lammy said on Saturday. “If Ukraine were to fail, the costs would be considerably more.”
And he called on Donald Trump, who famously wrote a book titled The Art of the Deal, to realise a good “deal” was working with Ukraine.
At the same conference, the US president’s special envoy for Ukraine revealed Europe would be consulted but ultimately excluded during peace talks.
Asked if they would be present, Keith Kellogg said he was from “the school of realism, and that is not going to happen”.
During his address to the event, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky called for the creation of an “army of Europe”, suggesting the continent could not rely on the US for its defence any longer.
“As we fight this war and lay the groundwork for peace and security, we must build the armed forces of Europe so that Europe’s future depends only on Europeans, and decisions about Europe are made in Europe,” he said.
He also suggested that the “old days” of America supporting Europe were gone and that no ceasefire deal would be agreed without Ukraine’s involvement.
For his part, Mr Lammy tried to appeal to President Trump’s idea of himself as a deal-maker.
He said the best security guarantee for Ukraine against future Russian aggression was binding US industry, business and defence capability into its future.
“That is what will make Putin sit up and pay attention, and that is what’s attractive to a US president who knows how to get a good deal,” Mr Lammy added.
But he added that the Ukraine crisis was an “existential question” for Europe and the financial cost of failure would dwarf continued support for Kyiv.
He said: “There is a question for Europe. If we look at GDP combined, it’s about 0.01 per cent that we are spending on that fight for Ukraine. We know this is the frontline, not just for Ukraine, but for Europe.
“We know too that even when we get to a negotiated peace, Putin will not go away. So this is an existential question for Europe.
“We meet that question alongside the United States. At an appropriate time, we will get into a debate about security guarantees.
“And there will be an arrangement, of course, but quite rightly, we say that there is an irreversible pathway for Ukraine towards Nato – that is the cheapest and it is the best mechanism to secure peace, not just in Europe, but across the Euro-Atlantic."
Appearing alongside counterparts from France, Germany and Poland, Mr Lammy added: “All of us as foreign ministers have, how can I put it, detailed conversations with our Treasury departments, and one of the messages that we’re deadly serious about is, if Ukraine were to fail, the costs would be considerably more.”
