Calon a victory for soft power while Donald Trump returns to the Maison de Great Britain

For all the royal efforts that have embarked on Ego Donald Trump this week during his second unprecedented state visit to the United Kingdom, his trip also highlighted at least two important developments for transatlantic decision-makers.

The two involve questions where governments of the United Kingdom – and Canada – have contradictory opinions to the American president.

The first is the War of Israel in Gaza.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom would announce its recognition of a Palestinian state this weekend, alongside Canada, Australia, France and other Western countries.

Trump administration officials have made their views clear opposite.

“We actually think that this (recognition) has undermined the negotiations, because it embraces Hamas, and we think it undermines the prospects for the future of peace in the region,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the issue on the eve of Trump’s British visit.

Rubio’s position echoes those of the largest Jewish community organizations in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, which, in a joint release, Doubt that the Palestinian state would be “a reward for violence and rejectionism”.

But in his remarks Thursday, Starmer categorically rejected this post, the American president listening next to him.

“The question of recognition must be seen … (like a part of this global package, which, we hope, takes us from the appalling situation in which we are currently in the end of a safe and secure Israel, which we do not have and a viable Palestinian state.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney published a statement The use of similar words in the summer, noting that the in the course of Israel to “prevent the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza”, as well as the imperative to preserve a two -state solution, was the source of Canada’s decision to act now.

While Trump did not agree with the Starmer position – and, implicitly, from Carney – the position on recognition, he also said that he was not going to do anything.

“I have a disagreement with the Prime Minister on this score, ok? One of our rare disagreements, in fact.”

Israel “disappointed”

One of the most respected foreign policy experts in Great Britain says Trump’s response is notable.

“He (Trump) has chosen a kind of affable,” accept to disagree on this point “, which, I think, is a green light for Keir Starmer to move forward with the recognition of Palestine,” said Peter Ricketts, member of the British Chamber of Lords and former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“The American opposition was silent, and I suspect that the Israelis would have been extremely disappointed to see this,” Rickets at BBC Radio 4 said today.

While Canada opens discussions with the United States on the renewal of the Canadian-American trade (CUSMA) agreement, there have been general concerns that Canada’s position on the Palestinian State could compromise these talks-but Trump’s comments in the United Kingdom could suggest otherwise.

The useful recognition of a Palestinian state is, Gaza being struck for two years by Israeli forces and the Jewish settlers in the increasingly embracing occupied West Bank and by organizing almost daily attacks against the Palestinians and their properties, is very questionable.

Trump repeated that no discussion on the future of Gaza will occur on his watch, unless the 20 Israeli hostages suspected of being still alive and that Hamas has been returned.

But in Europe, Canada and a large part of the rest of the world, it is deep that Trump’s explicit approval of Israel attacks against Gaza has embraced people on the far right of Israel who want to occupy and settle Gaza permanently – and if Trump does not quickly agree to hold Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and finish the state of Israel on the city of Gaza, it will be too late Palestin of Israel.

Look | Trump, Starmer discusses different opinions on the Palestinian state:

Trump, Starmer disagrees on the Palestinian state as a visit wraps

President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a joint press conference to conclude Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom Trump recognized a disagreement with Starmer on Gaza and the Palestinian state.

Shift Ukraine

The other notable development of the state visit came to the future of Trump’s efforts to end the Russian war against Ukraine.

Since he took office eight months ago, the American president has undergone a kind of evolution, in his attempts to restore peace.

Starting with the infamous dressing of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the oval office, where he proclaimed the president of Ukraine “had no cards” and exhorted him to simply cut his losses and to settle, Trump gradually moved his position.

Starmer played an important role in this change, because he advised Zelenskyy on his relations with Trump, but also did his own interventions on behalf of the United Kingdom and Europe.

Speaking during Thursday’s press conference on Thursday, Trump’s key message on Ukraine was that Europe must do more to hit Russia where it hurts: namely, stop buying your energy.

“What is the most striking, that he was ready to say aloud that everyone knows, but no one is necessarily ready to recognize,” Tom Keattingge, founding director of the Center for Finance and Security (CFS) said at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

“It was his point of view on the EU which essentially financed the war of Russia in Ukraine.”

While Europe has radically cut On the purchases of oil and natural gas from Russia since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in 2021, it did not stop completely.

The EU – mainly Hungary and Slovakia – always buy two percent of its oil from Russia and 14% of its natural gas.

A European energy monitoring website Notable imports from the Russian fossil fuels EU were higher than the total amount of financial aid sent by the Ukraine block in 2024.

“It’s a stain on the continent,” Keatinge told journalists at a conference call with the Foreign Press Association based in London. “The lack of will to solve this problem is a problem, and I think Donald Trump forces the EU to do what he should have done a long time ago.”

Trump spoke several times the way Putin disappointed and “really dropped him” since the couple held their summit in Anchorage, Alaska, in mid-August.

Standing next to Starmer, Trump suggested – as he has often done in the past – that he can hit the economy of Russia much more difficult than him, but he will only do so if Europe is going first.

“I am ready to do something else. But not when the people I fight buy Russia oil. If the price of oil drops, very simply, Russia will settle.”

New sanctions

Friday, the European Union confirmed that it had adopted a new package of sanctions against Russia, its 19th since the start of its attack on Ukraine.

New measures Include a complete ban on EU countries that buy Russian natural gas, as well as more sanctions on ships that carry Russian fossil fuels around the world.

The effect that new measures will have to dissuade Putin can be limited, but Ricketts says that the slow change of Trump on the issue of sanctions, to the request to ask Starmer and European leaders, is remarkable.

“If we can channel this in a proposal to sanction companies, individuals have engaged in the oil trade, then it is a practical proposal,” said former national security advisor. “So there is an open door there, we can cross.”

Other observers vehemently reject any suggestion that Starmer’s efforts this week to break into the unpredictable American president can lead to better results for the United Kingdom

Ben Jamal, by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who participated in the major street demonstrations in London against Trump’s visit, said the American president is a tyrant – and try to play with him, he will inevitably turn.

“What we see for the moment is what I would describe as an absolute appeasement by President Trump,” Jamal told CBC News in an interview.

“The only purpose of the influence is to use it to say:” What you do is bad, it is not what we defend and we urge you and demand that you change course. “”

“And we don’t do this saying:” Come and make an unprecedented state visit and we will unroll the red carpet. “”

How much this trip ended up helping politically starmer at home, is very subjective.

He continues to cope with intense pressure in his Labor party for continuing to exchange with Israel and welcome his senior officials in London during official visits. And on the political right, it faces growing competition from the reform of the United Kingdom, which challenged work on what it says to be its “weak” immigration policies.

However, at the end of the week, the British Prime Minister will probably see the state visit as a global victory, without major blunders, without open rockets with Trump and promises of billions of dollars in the years to come.