Defence topics up for debate with Starmer during Trump's second state visit to UK
Donald Trump is heading to the UK on what will be his second state visit, with defence topics expected to be on his agenda.
His itinerary includes a meeting with King Charles and Queen Camilla as well as bilateral talks with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at Chequers.
The Red Arrows will also be conducting a flypast accompanied by UK and US F-35 fighter jets during President Trump's visit.
BFBS Forces News has explored the areas of defence that Sir Keir and Mr Trump could converse about when the leader of the free world is in the capital.
Poland
When Russian drones went into Polish airspace last week, Warsaw and Nato aircraft, such as Polish F-16 fighter jets, Dutch F-35 Lightnings, Italian AWACS surveillance planes and mid-air refuelling aircraft, were involved in the nighttime operation to shoot down several drones.
President Trump's response to the incident was to post on his Truth Social platform.
"What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go!” he wrote.
After Russian drones crept into Polish airspace, prime minister Donald Tusk invoked Nato's Article 4, which meant an urgent consultation between member states happened as Poland's "territorial integrity, political independence or security" was under threat.
Given the seriousness of the situation, with Mr Tusk telling the Polish parliament that it was "closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two", Sir Keir will likely press the former Apprentice businessman on what measures Washington can offer Poland to help after the incursion.
Sir Keir could try to persuade the US to give Poland a US Patriot battery to sit on the border between Ukraine and Poland.
The PM might also attempt to ask the US to speed up its delivery of F-35 Lightnings to Warsaw, as the first group is slated to be handed over early next year.
Mr Starmer could possibly push for more US troops to be deployed to the country to shore up Nato's eastern flank as Mr Trump said he could agree to the policy when he hosted Polish president Karol Nawrocki at the White House recently, according to CNN.
Ukraine
Of course, Poland's eastern neighbour is continuing to battle against Russian forces in the long-running conflict.
There have been several talks over the summer focused on finding a peaceful solution to the war between Kyiv and Moscow.
After these talks, Sir Keir might look to ask about a path to peace talks between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, as Washington has hinted it could host a meeting if the two leaders agree to meet.
Alongside the possibility of further peace talks, the PM may look to discuss with Mr Trump the exact US involvement in the security guarantees if a truce is agreed, which could include Washington helping the reassurance forces with command and control systems, intelligence and surveillance assets, the Financial Times suggested.
Defence spending
In light of American pressure to increase defence spending to 5% over the summer, Nato member states acquiesced to spend 5% of their country's GDP on defence by 2035 at the Hague summit in June.
Meanwhile, bringing it back to the UK, the Government has said that defence spending will be boosted to 2.6% of GDP by April 2027.
So Mr Trump could suggest during the talks that the UK looks at ways to increase defence spending in line with his administration's policies.
Furthermore, he could question whether the UK is going quickly enough on raising defence spending.
Trump himself
As ever with these bilateral meetings between two leaders, their personalities will affect how well the meeting goes on the day.
President Trump and the Prime Minister last came together at Turnberry golf course, while the American leader was visiting Scotland.
Mr Trump was positive about Sir Keir, as he referred to him as a friend back in July.
Considering that the US president is Commander-in-Chief, all the military decisions that come from this meeting will have to go through him ultimately.
Lastly, President Trump could take the meeting in a completely different direction from what is expected and speak about countries and policy areas that are very unexpected, meaning that while we can predict, there might be something out of the ordinary that occurs or he speaks about on the trip that changes everything.
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