Building the bridge was a struggle for new British ministers. Boris Johnson was widely mocked when he suggested a link 28 miles from Scotland to Northern Ireland, where it spanned a trench containing 1 million tons of unsuccessful munitions, chemical weapons and radioactive waste.

Sir Kerr Starmer was also welcomed when he suggested on the eve of this week’s trip to Washington that it could be the link between the White House unrestricted and Europe, which has suffered Trump’s commercial threats and match to Russia. In the view of Michael Clark, a professor from the King’s College in London: “The West died.”

However, after warm conversations at the White House on Thursday – where Starmer and Trump praised each other – there are hopes in London that something could still be saved from the shattered certainty of the post -war order that the American president mocked. “I am happy,” Starmer said.

On Sunday, Starmer will assemble 18 European leader in Lancaster House in London, a nineteenth century palace next to Buckingham Palace. They will extract them on the framework of Trump’s mind and try to coordinate efforts to secure any peace deal in Ukraine and the largest rearmament in Europe since the end of the Cold War.

Emmanuel Macron, President of France, will be a major player and works with Starmer to seek to maintain US security in Europe. But the British Prime Minister believes that he has a unique role he plays.

“The president really loves Britain,” says one of the British officials, noting that Trump’s mother was Scottish. “He has a warm relationship with the Prime Minister. He does not do bombing with Kiir.”

The size of the task facing Starmer and Makakon was put in severe satisfaction on Friday when the US President was screaming with Ukrainian President Voludmir Zelinsky at the Oval Office. “You are a gambling with the lives of millions of people. Trump said:” You are a gamble with World War III. “

The very general dispute emphasized what extent the United States has moved in recent weeks from its previous position of its continuous support to Ukraine against Russia – and the distance between Washington and its European allies is now.

In an attempt to fill this proven gap, Starmer tries this week to put a new strategy: an attempt to enhance Europe’s ability to defend itself, while trying to persuade Trump to stay military and economically with the old continent.

Starmer told reporters on their way to Washington: “When it comes to defense and security, we have worked for decades as a bridge because of the special relationship we have with the United States and our loyalty to our European allies,” Starmer told reporters on their way to Washington.

However, even before Trump’s public spit with Zelenskky, the question was whether anything other than thinking about Britain was to try to be a bridge in a world where – as Starmer said on the deputies this week – “everything has changed.”

For Starmer, it is not only about trying to build a working relationship with the new White House Trump, but also to fix fences with Europe. After all, Britain voted to dismantle its relations with its European neighbors in 2016, where Brexiters maintain the possibility of country that refers to closer relations with the United States. But a commercial deal accredited by the United Kingdom and the United States has never been achieved.

“There are three elephants in the room, and we only have to be careful, not to be dizzy,” is how a British official describes Starmer’s attempt to move between the global economic powers of the United States, the European Union and China.

The fact is that Starmer is forced to re -invent the UK foreign policy around the hoof. David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary under the last government of the Labor Party, says, “FT says:” The idea of ​​the West has not died, but its current incarnation in intensive care. “

During his short trip to Washington, He made his best to maintain the interest of the US President in Europe. He praised Trump and celebrated the presentation of the visit of the second state “incredible” to Britain – the first time that such honor has been granted to an elected leader. Trump retreated that Britain was “great” and King Charles was “a beautiful man.”

In the short term, at least, it appears to have resulted. Trump suggested that Britain had escaped his induction attack if the United States and the United Kingdom could reach a kind of economic agreement, which focuses on technology. The President also supported a controversial deal, mediating in Starmer, to hand over the British sovereignty of the Shaghus Islands in exchange for securing the future of the UK and the United States in Diego Garcia for 140 years.

But Trump failed to provide the most called Starmer: an American military guarantee on any Ukraine peace deal and the most general reassurance that Washington will remain a reliable partner in maintaining European security.

This is a threat to Starmer and an opportunity. The threat is European security in the face of Russian aggression; Trump was clear this week. He said, “I will not make security guarantees that exceed a lot.” “We will make Europe do so.”

Starmer’s opportunity to benefit from the increasing security concerns in Europe is to revive the British influence on the continent, a role that Britain’s exit from the European Union. Along with Macron, who also met Trump this week, he leads one of two countries in Western Europe only with large military muscles, even if this decreases over decades of additional discounts.

After years of secession after Britain has left the European Union, Britain is now talking about the closest European cooperation. Rachel Reeves, UK advisor, met this week with European Union counterparts at the Group 20 Group Summit in Cape Town to consider ideas for the European multilateral defense fund, which can help pay the price of the greatest armament since the Cold War.

The Starmer’s Lancaster House, which will be attended by leaders, including Macron and Orene’s Zelenskyy, will discuss a European response to Trump’s warning about retracting the continent. “I accept that the European allies, including the United Kingdom, should do more and this means the ability, coordination and spending,” Starmer told reporters.

This view is widely shared throughout the continent. “My absolute priority is to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible, so we can really achieve independence from the United States,” said Fredetic Mirz, the German adviser to wait and the announced Atlantic Ocean. He added that Trump was “largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.”

Starmer allies hope that the British leadership in defense in Europe will be used in a better deal after Britain’s exit from the European Union, where “re -appointment” talks begin in the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Lord Peter Ricks, a former national security advisor in the United Kingdom, warns that “Starmer should stop talking about building the bridge. This does not work when one bank of the river is subject to violent earthquakes.”

But he sees Starmer’s real opportunity to lead European security, and works with Macron.

“One man has the experience and longevity of the other political life. They must build a coalition of Europeans who want – able to act outside the solid rules of the European Union. The Ukrainian power must be the first step. In the next, the galvanized in the joint defense industry can be.” “All this requires the boldness and lightness of the tactical movement. Not a natural starring game.”

Starmer insists that he did not give up On Trump or the United States. Indeed, the British Prime Minister’s announcement on the eve of his visit in Washington to enhance defensive spending in the United Kingdom by 6 billion pounds from 2027 – an increase of 2.3 percent of GDP to 2.5 percent – was to be a sign of the White House that Europe had received the message and was looking to solve some of its security problems.

However, for Starmer, the European defense needs America. Lord Petter Mandleson, the newly installed British ambassador to Washington, told FT this month that maintaining US security guarantee in Europe was his first priority.

“We live in a very important moment in our lives, between the two countries and indeed for all freedom -loving democracies in the world,” Mandson said at a welcoming reception in Edwin Lutins, which was renewed in Edwin Lutins.

British officials admit that there is a “chicken and egg problem” when it comes to confronting Russia. The Europeans are hesitant to commit any peace forces in Ukraine without an American air cover, while Trump does not want to adhere to anything until he sees concrete evidence that Europe is serious in defending itself.

Some believe that the days of America, which sees itself as a protector of Western values, are over – whatever the Europeans might do. Bruninwin Maddox, director of the Chatham House Center in London, says that the concept of the West-in that liberal democracies outside the geographical region such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand-has ended.

I think the assumptions that support the idea of ​​the West. . . She says that a set of principles that these countries felt were defending and calling for the rest of the world – an agreement on this.

Starmer believes that Britain can help strengthen the West, which leads to efforts to show that Europe, rather than Trump, is part of the solution. The Prime Minister’s allies insist that he is able to prefer him in Washington without isolating Europe. “It shouldn’t matter,” says one of the officials. “This is what everyone is trying to do.”

Mandleson, who was a strong competitor in Britain’s exit from the European Union, acknowledged that leaving the European Union has opened an opportunity for Britain to spread a role in Washington through “the absence of Europe.” For Trump, who claimed this week that the European Union was created to the “nail” America, Britain may become a useful axis on the continent.

“We must reject any wrong choice between our allies – between one side of the Atlantic Ocean and the other,”

On Thursday night, while his journey followed the Connecticut coast – before Trump’s angry exchanged with Zelinski – he seemed satisfied with his work. When asked how he went, smiled and simply gave a thumb.

But the Prime Minister is also well aware of the old diplomatic saying that if you are a bridge, it may be easy for people to walk over you.

Imagine data by Keith Fry