What might Keir Starmer discuss in meeting with Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries?

Britain’snew prime minister Keir Starmer was set to meet with leaders of the Democratic and Republican caucuses in the House of Representatives on Wednesday as the Nato summit in Washington entered its second day.

Starmer’s journey to Washington for the summit comes as heis less than a week into his tenure as prime minister.

The joint meeting with Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries was likely to largely focus on establishing some of Starmer’s first relationships on Capitol Hill as prime minister while also touching on some policy issues including the most anticipated topic of the week: Ukraine, and the eastern European country’s journey to becoming a Nato member-state. US officials, alongside their counterparts in the UK and other Nato countries, are set to unveil what the Biden administration has been previewing as a “bridge to Nato membership” for Ukraine this week.

It’s still unclear what the exact details and requirements for that path to membership will entail, but more information is expected to be made public over the next few days and at President Joe Biden’s widely anticipated press conference on Thursday. It will be his first fully open press conference since 2022.

The prime minister also met on Wednesday with a bipartisan Senate delegation led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Ukraine is likely to be an issue of discussion between Starmer and congressional leaders, given the ever-present tough situation in which Speaker Mike Johnson, head of the House Republicans, still finds himself. Johnson has been personally supportive of continued military funding for Ukraine, a stance which has hardened since he became speaker and began receiving classified briefings. A