(3 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels, Belgium – 03 February 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer arriving for EU Council meeting
2. Close of camera
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Keir Starmer, UK Prime Minister:
"Joining the EU Council meeting this morning, this evening, is really important for the United Kingdom because obviously it’s about defence and security, which is central and vital to UK’s concerns and interests. So, very important to be here at this council meeting this evening, representing the United Kingdom on such an important issue. Obviously, there’s a wider question of the re-set between the EU and the UK, where we want to make progress. But starting with defence and security this evening is very, very important for our interests."
4. Cutaway media
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Keir Starmer, UK Prime Minister:
"So far as Ukraine is concerned, it’s really important that we keep our resolve in support of Ukraine, and that means we must continue to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position, whether that’s supply of capability, whether that’s training, whether that’s financing. That support is vitally, vitally important. Any discussion of security guarantees is secondary to that question of putting Ukraine in the strongest possible, position, that’s amongst the points that I’ll be making this evening."
6. Close of camera
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Keir Starmer, UK Prime Minister:
"(The) Terrible stabbing in Sheffield is one where I think the whole country would want to reach out to to the family, to the friends, to the school, the entire community in their grief and mourn with them. Obviously, there’ll be an investigation, but I think at this point, I simply would speak for the country on behalf…and to the individuals affected, to the family in particular, but everybody impacted by this awful situation. A young boy has gone to school and hasn’t returned home, and so my first thoughts as prime minister, and as a father, are with the family."
8. Cutaway media
9. Various of Starmer greeting EU Council President Antonio Costa and entering building
STORYLINE:
Keir Starmer travelled to Brussels on Monday, becoming the first British prime minister to attend a European Union leaders’ meeting since the U.K. left the bloc five years ago.
Starmer, along with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, will join the bloc’s 27 leaders at a self-styled “retreat” in the Belgian capital, Brussels.
The summit will focus on EU-U.S. cooperation, military spending and ramping up Europe’s defense industry.
"Very important to be here at this council meeting this evening, representing the United Kingdom on such an important issue. Obviously, there’s a wider question of the re-set between the EU and the UK, where we want to make progress. But starting with defence and security this evening is very, very important for our interests," Starmer said as he arrived.
With no clear sign yet from US President Donald Trump about how he intends to try to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, Starmer said continued support for Ukraine was "vitally, vitally important."
"Any discussion of security guarantees is secondary to that question of putting Ukraine in the strongest possible, that’s amongst the points that I’ll be making this evening," he said.
Starmer is walking a diplomatic and economic tightrope.
He is seeking to rebuild ties with the EU while avoiding tariffs from protectionist U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump said early Monday that “the U.K. is out of line but … I think that one can be worked out.”
AP video by Mark Carlson
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