The United Kingdom is showcasing its commitment to trans-Atlantic collaboration by backing international regulations, as evidenced in recent developments.
“The UK is striving to highlight the positives in this situation,” remarked Bronwen Maddox, leader of the international affairs think-tank Chatham House, on Thursday. “This tanker situation provides a platform for governments like Keir Starmer’s to align with the US, without necessarily endorsing all its actions.”
Maddox further explained the complex predicament faced by the UK and Europe: “There’s a clear dilemma here. They aim to avoid antagonizing Trump and his administration, as this could endanger, firstly, the defense of Ukraine, secondly, Europe’s security, and lastly, crucial trade agreements.”
“At the same time, they feel compelled to uphold their fundamental principles,” she added.
In a debriefing to British lawmakers regarding the ship seizure, Defence Secretary John Healey emphasized that the UK and the US continue to be “the closest possible defence and security allies.” He noted that NATO is “stronger now, larger now, and more united” than it has ever been.
According to US officials, the capture of the merchant vessel Bella 1, along with another tanker intercepted in the Caribbean, is part of efforts to gain control over Venezuela’s oil resources following the ousting of Maduro.
Healey had a different emphasis, framing the interception of the ship as it headed toward Russia as action to support Ukraine and tackle the “shadow fleet” of decrepit tankers used by Russia and Iran to evade international oil sanctions.
“Last year, it was estimated that Russia sold up to $100 billion from sanctioned oil, money which is directly funding attacks against Ukrainian citizens,” Healey said.
“We owe it to Ukrainians to step up on these shadow operations, and we are.”
Starmer stresses the positive
Since Trump’s return to office a year ago, European nations including the UK have struggled with how to deal with a president who has slapped tariffs on trading partners, quit international organisations and derided NATO, the bedrock of Euro-Atlantic security for more than 75 years.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday lamented that the United States is “gradually turning away from some of its allies and freeing itself from the international rules.”
Starmer continues to emphasise the positive. The centre-left prime minister has made it a key goal to keep on Trump’s good side, and to keep Trump onside with Europe over Ukraine.
He has refrained from direct criticism, despite strong political pressure to condemn Trump’s attacks on London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticism of British immigration policy and $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC. He has declined to criticise the toppling of Maduro, stressing that the UK supports international law without saying whether the US attack broke it.
British officials pointed to the Trump administration’s commitment at a conference in Paris this week to provide security guarantees for Ukraine after a future ceasefire as a concrete result of its approach. Healey said those guarantees “could not be more important.”
Leslie Vinjamuri, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said Starmer has “done a pretty good job in a very complicated situation where the UK clearly needs to depend on the US.
“It’s very tactical on the part of the UK,” she said. “Grab the United States where you can to demonstrate that you’re on the same page, that you are useful.
“That’s pragmatic politics. That’s realism.”
But not all differences can be papered over. Trump’s insistence that acquiring Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, is essential for US security has forced the British leader into a position at odds with the president.
Starmer has said repeatedly this week that “only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark” can decide the future of the vast Arctic island.
Starmer spoke to Trump late on Wednesday and “set out his position on Greenland,” the prime minister’s office said in a terse summary of the call. It did not say how Trump responded.
Maddox said that Trump’s proposal “to seize the sovereign territory of a European country, a NATO member” is so egregious that Starmer’s “dance of keeping under the radar begins to look not just ridiculous but self-defeating.”
