A cabinet minister has said the UK has to spend more on defence as he warned the US against cutting European nations out of talks over the future of Ukraine.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said any peace settlement would not be “durable” without their participation.
Sir Keir Starmer is to attend a crisis summit on Ukraine in Paris on Monday, as European leaders reel from the events of the last week.
Donald Trump’s team has made clear Europe should not expect to be included in any negotiations to end the war, which started when Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago.
The Paris meeting could also discuss defence spending in Europe, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds suggested, amid Mr Trump’s calls for it to double in many countries.
On defence spending, Mr Reynolds told Sky News: “The whole cabinet, the whole government [and] I think most people in this country recognise the pressures the world is under, recognize more will have to be spent on defence.”
He added a roadmap on how the government will move to its target of 2.5 per cent would be set out in the spending review later this year, but did not rule out going higher.
In response, the shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said that the UK needs to raise defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP.
France is preparing to host the emergency meeting with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte following comments by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky that the continent should form an “army of Europe” as it could not rely on the US for defence.
Sir Keir said: “This is a once-in-a-generation moment for our national security where we engage with the reality of the world today and the threat we face from Russia.
“It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in Nato as we work with the United States to secure Ukraine’s future and face down the threat we face from Russia.”
“The UK will work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together. We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face.”
The prime minister will take the messages from this meeting on the way forward on Ukraine to Washington DC the following week to discuss at a meeting with Mr Trump.
Mr Zelensky’s views were backed in a separate warning by General Sir Richard Shirreff, Nato’s former supreme allied commander of Europe.
Writing in The Independent, Sir Richard said the US can no longer be trusted as Europe and Britain’s ally. He called for a dramatic rise in defence spending to avoid the risk of a third world war.
