Allies Starmer and Biden meet in White House to talk future. It might all change in months

With Donald Trump looming as one of two possible occupants of the White House come January, the stakes for Ukraine’s future could not have been higher as US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer met in Washington for the second time in the last three months.

It added a new level of intrigue to Friday’s face-to-face between Starmer and Biden. The two allies gathered at the White House to talk about Ukraine policy, but in just a few months, Starmer will have to work with — or oppose — a new US leader.

Biden, who announced nearly two months ago that he would stand down from his bid for re-election, will be leaving office on January 20.

The person who replaces him might be Trump, who has all but declared that his approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine will be to cut off American aide, let Russia win, and perhaps go as far as pulling America out of the NATO alliance.

Democrat nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has adopted the polar opposite stance, and reaffirmed American commitment to Ukraine if she is elected. Starmer won’t know who he is dealing with until November at the earliest, and they won’t take the office until January.

In Washington, at Biden’s invitation, the Prime Minister has found himself at a crossroads as Kyiv pushes to be permitted to use its British-built Storm Shadow missiles to attack targets deep in Russia’s interior as a way of pushing back on the continued war Vladimir Putin’s army is waging.

It’s a decision that Starmer can’t make on his own.

Though Starmer could conceivably authorize the use of the British missiles for attacks on Russian targets on the far side of the country’s border with Ukraine, he can’t give assent to using the targeting data that would