The UK won't be "choosing between" the US and the EU, according to the prime minister, when asked if he would consider resetting European relations to appease Donald Trump. Instead, Keir Starmer emphasised that both relations are important to the UK. During the press conference in Brussels, NATO Chief Mark Rutte criticised the tariff dispute between NATO members US and Canada, stating "that is clearly not what NATO is about". Report by Faragt. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00As you know the UK's commitment to NATO is stronger than ever because the need for NATO
00:06is stronger than ever and we've had a very good and productive discussion today on how we can
00:12meet the rising threats that Russia poses across our continent including the situation of course in
00:19Ukraine. I'm absolutely convinced we can deal with these issues and there are always issues
00:24between allies. It is never always tranquil and happy going. There are always issues sometimes
00:30bigger sometimes smaller. It's early days and I think what's really important is open
00:36and strong trading relations and that's been the basis of my discussions with President
00:41Trump and I know that intense US-EU discussions are planned. Clearly that is not what NATO is
00:51about so maybe I shouldn't comment too much on that other than saying that when you look at
00:56the defence industrial base it is clearly it's very clear that the US is selling much more into
01:02Europe than Europe is buying from the US. Look in relation to the relationship between the UK
01:07and the US and the EU I've always been clear that both are important to us. Now that for me isn't
01:15new I think that's always been the case and will be the case for many many years to come.
01:21That's why in my discussions with President Trump we've touched on issues of trade and on
01:26issues of security both really important in relation to the trade that we already do between
01:32our two countries but also the security the defence and the intelligence partnership that
01:37we founded over many many years hugely important to our collective defence. Obviously I'm here at
01:44NATO today making the clear case and having the discussions about defence and security
01:48and tonight I'll be at the EU Council. Now tonight is very much obviously about security
01:53and defence where I do think there's a very important discussion to be had about how we
01:58increase our security and defence work together in a very volatile world but also I will touch
02:05on the wider reset which goes beyond defence and security into the fields of energy and into trade
02:13and the economy and so back to where I started really both of these relations are very important
02:20to us. We are not choosing between them but that's historically been the position of the
02:26UK for many many decades now.