Sir Keir Starmer and his spouse set off to the USA on Tuesday night for his first worldwide go to as Prime Minister.
Sir Keir and Girl Starmer held palms as they boarded a jet to Washington DC for Nato’s seventy fifth anniversary summit.
The Prime Minister will meet Joe Biden, the US president, and different Nato leaders in particular person for the primary time since successful the overall election.
Chatting with broadcasters earlier than the flight, Sir Keir stated Labour’s strategic defence evaluate would “come first” earlier than an announcement on when the proportion of GDP spent on defence will attain the promised degree of two.5 per cent.
“I’m dedicated to that 2.5 per cent inside our fiscal guidelines,” he stated. “That strategic evaluate wants to return first.”
Sir Keir has thus far refused to again Rishi Sunak’s pre-election pledge to fulfill the goal by 2030.
The Prime Minister added: “However at this time, tomorrow and the subsequent day is all about standing along with our allies, discussing virtually how we offer additional assist to Ukraine, and ship a really, very clear message to Putin that we’ll stand towards Russian aggression wherever it’s on the earth.”
The Washington summit will centre on the Russia-Ukraine warfare, and Sir Keir is predicted to carry a bilateral assembly with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president.
The Biden administration introduced on Monday evening that the president will host the Prime Minister for a bilateral assembly through the summit on the White Home.
The Prime Minister shall be joined in Washington DC by David Lammy, the International Secretary, and John Healey, the Defence Secretary.
Mr Lammy and Mr Healey stated on Monday that they might use the Nato summit to induce different nations to extend their defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP.
Final 12 months, simply 11 of the alliance’s 32 members, together with Britain, reached the goal.