Trump and Zelensky meeting ‘indicative’ of efforts to achieve peace, says Lammy
The US and Ukrainian presidents were pictured in discussion at the Vatican over the weekend, having both travelled for Pope Francis’s funeral.
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky meeting at Pope Francis’s funeral was “indicative” of the “effort” being put in to secure a peace deal for Ukraine, David Lammy has said.
The US and Ukrainian presidents were pictured in discussion at the Vatican over the weekend, having both travelled to Rome for the service.
The Foreign Secretary told the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee on Wednesday that Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have done “a lot of the heavy lifting” in terms of trying to bring nations together to support any potential future agreement.
It comes as Ukrainian official indicated they are willing to sign a minerals resources agreement with the US, perhaps as soon as Wednesday, with the country’s economy minister in Washington looking to iron out the final technical details.
The meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky on Saturday was the first since their fraught White House encounter earlier this year. In the hours following, the American president appeared to criticise Vladimir Putin, writing on TruthSocial that the Russian leader could be “just tapping me along”.
Asked by the crossbench peer Lord Darroch how likely he thinks a ceasefire and peace deal is in light of the weekend’s events, Mr Lammy said: “There’s no doubt about it, our Prime Minister alongside Emmanuel Macron has done a lot of heavy lifting in the coalition of the willing.
“I think you saw that in the Nato meeting of foreign ministers in which (US Secretary of State) Marco Rubio recommitted the United States to Nato, which was very important.
“We see that in the nations coming together and committing to stepping up in terms of Ukraine’s security, but also importantly in terms of Europe’s security.”
He later added: “All of that has happened in a sense because Donald Trump was pretty clear that he wanted to get a deal.
“I think that we see the images coming out of the basilica at the Pope’s funeral I think were indicative of this, that actually because of a lot of our effort, and indeed this time last week I was with the Ukrainians, the Germans, the French again ensuring that we aligned and got into the right place, that then went into the American system.”
He added: “All attempts are going in to get the ceasefire.”
The Ukrainian leader also had a meeting with Sir Keir on Saturday, and Mr Zelensky and the Prime Minister were also separately pictured in a conversation with Mr Trump and Mr Macron.
Amid the efforts to secure a peace deal, Mr Trump has previously said he wants access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as a condition of further support.
A deal is seen by Kyiv as possibly key in future military support from Washington, but talks had stalled following the Oval Office meeting between the leaders in February.
Economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko is thought to be currently in Washington for the final co-ordination of the agreement’s technical details, however it is not immediately clear whether the US administration is also ready to sign a deal.
