LONDON (AP) — Leaders from across Europe gather at an English country mansion on Thursday for a summit clouded by worries about whether the United States would remain a reliable ally if Donald Trump secures a second presidency.
Newly elected U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is welcoming some 45 heads of government to discuss migration, energy security and the threat from Russia as he seeks to restore relations between the U.K. and its European Union neighbors, four years after their acrimonious divorce.
The government said he’ll tell the European Political Community gathering that the U.K. plans to “take a more active and greater convening role on the world stage,” especially by helping Ukraine fight Russia’s invasion and working to crack down on the people-smuggling gangs organizing irregular migration.
“We cannot let the challenges of the recent past define our relationships of the future,” Starmer said. “That is why European security will be at the forefront of this government’s foreign and defense priorities, and why I am focused on seizing this moment to renew our relationship with Europe.”
When Britain agreed earlier this year to hold the one-day summit, Conservative leader Rishi Sunak was prime minister. His defeat in a July 4 election means it’s Starmer who will welcome leaders to Blenheim Palace, a Baroque country house that was the birthplace of World War II Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
The guest list includes German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
“It’s an incredibly useful occasion for Keir Starmer, because it gives him the chance to get to know a lot of European leaders,” said Jill Rutter, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Government think-tank. “It’s like Rishi Sunak organized a dating party for him.”
The meeting is the fourth for the EPC group, a brainchild of Macron. It was established in 2022 as a forum for countries both inside and outside the 27-nation EU after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine shattered Europe’s sense of security. Previous summits have been in Czech capital Prague; Chisinau, Moldova; and Granada, Spain.
The U.K. hopes this will be the best-attended summit to date, though EU chief Ursula von der Leyen is staying away as she fights to secure a second term as European Commission president from lawmakers in the European Parliament. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also is not expected to attend.
Starmer’s center-left government aims to rebuild ties with the EU strained by years of ill-tempered wrangling over Brexit divorce terms. A key priority is a new U.K.-EU security pact that Starmer hopes to strike soon.
The U.K. plans to work more closely with the European police agency Europol against people smuggling, part of measures to beef up border security following Starmer’s decision to scrap the Conservatives’ contentious and unrealized plan to send migrants arriving in the U.K. by boat on a one-way trip to Rwanda.
Participants also plan to discuss ways to defend democracy against interference and disinformation from Russia and others.
“We will only be able to secure our borders, drive economic growth and defend our democracies if we work together,” Starmer said.
Delegates gathered at Blenheim Palace, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of London, will be treated to full British hospitality, including strawberries with cream and a reception hosted by King Charles III.
Many thoughts will likely stray to the U.S., where the weekend assassination attempt on Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, underscored how febrile and polarized politics has become ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Trump’s skepticism about NATO has long worried U.S. allies. Trump’s choice of Sen. J.D. Vance, an opponent of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, as vice-presidential running mate has heightened concerns.
A senior EU official said that Trump was considered unpredictable and that the prospect of his return was “one of the issues that’s on everybody’s minds.”
The leaders planned to discuss “how we can prepare” for Trump’s potential return, the official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak on the record.
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Associated Press journalist Sylvain Plazy in Brussels contributed to this story.