Boris Johnson has scored an early diplomatic win with the UK becoming the first foreign destination for Joe Biden since he became US president.
But it is more thanks to good timing than the special relationship – a term the prime minister reportedly doesn’t like anyway because he thinks it sounds weak and needy.
As host of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised nations this year, Britain is providing the platform for world powers to gather for the first time in person since the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe.
Image: US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrive on Air Force One at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall
It gives Mr Johnson a prime opportunity, before group diplomacy kicks off on Friday, to secure some one-on-one time with Mr Biden and to renew UK-US ties after four turbulent and unpredictable years under Donald Trump.
Yet, despite all the values the two countries share, their deep security ties and long-running friendship, this won’t be all smiles and friendly elbow bumps.
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Mr Biden represents a return to a more conventional American leader, unashamedly supportive of trans-Atlantic ties, multilateral organisations and the fundamental importance of democratic values.
But he will unlikely have the same chemistry with the British prime minister as his predecessor did.
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Mr Johnson, with his blonde hair and reputation of a disruptor of the status quo – embodied by Brexit – was sometimes dubbed ‘mini Trump’ – a label that he will be keen to shake as he builds his friendship with the new administration.
Image: Boris Johnson arrives in Cornwall for the G7 summit via private plane. Pic Twitter/@BorisJohnson
This US president, unlike Mr Trump, is also no fan of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
He will feel no particular urge to put Britain at the front of the cue for any trade deal – a prospect dangled by his predecessor but never sealed.
Image: On 5 June, ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall activists from climate action group, Ocean Rebellion called for world leaders to make sea a priority at talks
Then there is the significant issue of the impact on Northern Ireland of the UK’s Brexit deal.
Mr Biden has been clear he will not accept any action by Britain or the EU that further endangers the Good Friday agreement, which is already under strain.
Image: (Front row left to right), European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, (middle row left to right) German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs
In addition, what will the US leader make of the UK government’s decision to shelve “temporarily” a promise to meet a UN target of spending 0.7% of national income on foreign aid at a time when the world’s poorest need help from the richest more than ever?
A £4bn cut in overseas aid means the UK is the only G7 nation reducing the amount it spend on helping developing nations.
Image: Climate change will be a key topic for this year’s summit
That said, the UK and the US have always had their differences.
It is their common goals and values that makes this bilateral relationship so vital to both sides and the rest of the world’s democracies.
At a time of a rising authoritarian China and with threats from Russia still acute, Mr Johnson and Mr Biden will ultimately want to strike a united front, knowing that all democracies are stronger when they work together.
Vladimir Putin made demands to take control of key regions of Ukraine during his talks with Donald Trump, it has been widely reported, as a condition for ending the war.
During their summit in Alaska, the Russian leader is said to have told the US president he wants the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions – and would give up other Ukrainian territories held by his troops in exchange.
The plans were reported by several news outlets, citing sources close to the matter, as Mr Trump scheduled a further meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington DC for Monday. He has said this could potentially pave the way for a three-way meeting with Mr Putin.
Mr Trump reportedly backs the plans, according to some outlets – but Mr Zelenskyy has previously ruled out formally handing any territory to Moscow. Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.
Details of the plans emerged after little was revealed during the high-profile summit between the US and Russian leaders on Friday.
Despite threats by the US president beforehand, of sanctions for Russia should there be no agreement on a ceasefire, a short news briefing after the talks ended with no mention of a suspension of fighting, no announced agreement on how to end the war, and little clarity about the next steps.
On Saturday, Mr Trump appeared to change his stance on what he hopes to achieve in Ukraine, indicating he wants a permanent peace settlement rather than a ceasefire.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” he said in a post on his social network site, Truth Social.
Image: Pic: Sergei Bobylev/ Sputnik/ Kremlin pool via AP
Trump: ‘Russia is a big power – they’re not’
In an interview with Fox News following the summit, Mr Trump signalled he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had “largely agreed”. He said Ukraine has to made a deal, as “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”.
Monday’s meeting at the White House will be the Ukrainian president’s second this year. His last descended into a fiery spat with Mr Trump and his vice president JD Vance, which saw him leave early.
After the fresh meeting was announced, Mr Zelenskyy in a post on X that he was grateful for the invitation.
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5:55
Trump and Putin’s body language analysed
“It is important that everyone agrees there needs to be a conversation at the level of leaders to clarify all the details and determine which steps are necessary and will work,” he said.
However, he said Russia had rebuffed “numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing”, which “complicates the situation”.
Mr Zelenskyy continued: “If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbours for decades.
“But together we are working for peace and security. Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war.”
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23:24
Trump and Putin in Alaska – The Debrief
Putin releases statement on summit
In a statement on the summit, Mr Putin described the talks as “timely and quite useful” – but said the “removal” of what he calls the “root causes” of the crisis “must underlie the settlement”.
He continued: “We definitely respect the US administration’s position which wants the hostilities to stop as soon as possible. So do we, and we would like to move forward with settling all issues by peaceful means.
“The conversation was very frank and substantive, which, in my view, moves us closer towards making necessary decisions.”
Image: Keir Starmer welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Downing Street earlier this week. Pic: AP/ Kirsty Wigglesworth
European leaders who make up the “coalition of the willing” are set to hold a conference call today ahead of the crunch talks between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host the video conference.
In a statement on Saturday,Sir Keir said Mr Trump’s efforts had “brought us closer than ever before to ending Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine” and that his leadership “in pursuit of an end to the killing should be commended”.
He said he supported the next phase of talks, but added: “In the meantime, until (Putin) stops his barbaric assault, we will keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even more sanctions.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military has reported an advance of up to 2km on the Sumy front in the country’s northeast.
“Zones of continuous enemy fire damage are being maintained,” the Ukrainian General Staff said on Telegram. “Ukrainian troops are repelling Russian forces”.
In the early hours of Sunday, a regional governor in Russia said a railway employee had been injured and a power line damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack.
The incident happened in the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
No deal has been reached to end the war in Ukraine – but Donald Trump has said there are “many points” he and Vladimir Putin agreed on during their highly anticipated summit.
Following the meeting in Alaska, which lasted more than two-and-a-half hours, the two leaders gave a short media conference giving little detail about what had been discussed, and without taking questions.
Mr Trump described the meeting as “very productive” and said there were “many points that we agreed on… I would say a couple of big ones”.
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2:20
Key moments from Trump-Putin news conference
But there are a few left, he added. “Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there…
“We haven’t quite got there, we’ve made some headway. There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
He has since suggested that negotiations should proceed directly to a peace deal, rather than purely a ceasefire agreement.
Mr Putin described the negotiations as “thorough and constructive” and said Russiawas “seriously interested in putting an end” to the war in Ukraine. He also warned Europe not to “torpedo nascent progress”.
Following the summit, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he plans to travel to Washington DC on Monday following a “long and substantive” conversation” with Mr Trump.
In a joint statement, European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer said they “welcomed President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine” and said the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ is “ready to play an active role”.
Image: Donald Trump greets Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Pic: AP/ Julia Demaree Nikhinson
After much build-up to the summit – with the US president threatening “severe” consequences for Russia should it not go well – it was ultimately not clear whether the talks had produced meaningful steps towards a ceasefire in what has been the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years.
Mr Trump said he intended to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, who were excluded from the discussions, to brief them.
Despite not reaching any major breakthrough, the US leader ended his remarks with a thank you, and said he would probably see Mr Putin again “very soon”.
When the Russian president suggested that “next time” would be Moscow, he responded by saying he might face criticism, but “I could see it possibly happening”.
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2:10
Trump applauds Putin and shares ride in ‘The Beast’
The red carpet treatment
The news conference came after a grand arrival at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage, where the US president stepped down from Air Force One and later greeted his Russian counterpart with a handshake and smiles on a red carpet.
Mr Putin even travelled alongside Mr Trump in the presidential limousine, nicknamed “The Beast”.
It was the kind of reception typically reserved for close US allies, belying the bloodshed and the suffering in the war.
Before the talks, the two presidents ignored frantically-shouted questions from journalists – and Mr Putin appeared to frown when asked by one reporter if he would stop “killing civilians” in Ukraine, putting his hand to his ear as though to indicate he could not hear.
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3:22
‘Fury, anger and disgust’ in Ukraine
Our US correspondent Martha Kelner, on the ground in Alaska, said he was shouting “let’s go” – apparently in reference to getting the reporters out of the room.
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3:02
What we learned from Trump-Putin news conference
A ’10/10′ meeting
During his first day back in the White House in January, Mr Trump had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine.
But seven months later, after infamously berating Mr Zelenskyy during a meeting at the Oval Office in February, and then stanching the flow of some US military assistance to Kyiv, he still does not appear to have brought a pause to the conflict.
In an interview with Fox News before leaving Alaska, Mr Trump described the meeting with Mr Putin as “warm” and gave it a “10/10”, but declined to give details about what they discussed.
He also insisted that the onus going forward could be on Mr Zelenskyy “to get it done”, but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.
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7:06
Trump’s body language was ‘disappointed’
What happens next?
Mr Trump has spoken with Mr Zelenskyy, Sir Keir Starmer and European leaders about the talks.
Following the call, Mr Zelenskyy reiterated the importance of involving Europe: “It is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America,” he said.
“We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.”
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In a joint statement, European leaders including Sir Keir said: “We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“We welcome President Trump’s statement that the US is prepared to give security guarantees.
“The coalition of the willing is ready to play an active role. No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine’s pathway to EU and NATO.”
Despite the US president’s efforts to bring about a ceasefire, Russian attacks on Ukraine have only intensified in the past few months.
The clear winner in Alaska is Vladimir Putin. A day in a global spotlight, equal billing with a true superpower leader, a red carpet welcome and most importantly for him no need to agree to a ceasefire.
He can fly home knowing Donald Trump has handed him a propaganda bonanza. Russian media which he controls completely will crow for weeks to come, milking the pictures like that of Putin laughing in the back of Cadillac One.
Crucially, Putin has wriggled off the hook yet again. He had until two weeks ago faced the threat of imminent severe sanctions that could have brought his economy to its knees by targeting his vital oil industry.
Donald Trump is one clear loser. He appears to have received nothing in return for bending over backwards to welcome the Russian leader. He said he would not be happy if Russia didn’t agree to a ceasefire but has failed to secure one.
The US president will not see it that way. He craves attention and big TV moments and yesterday delivered on that front.
Image: The two leaders spoke for around two-and-a-half hours. Pic: AP
Ukrainians who were not invited are losers too. It means the shelling and drone attacks on their homes goes on. Many more of them will die.
Social media here in Ukraine lit up in fury as the extraordinary pictures from Alaska came in.
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5:08
Trump-Putin meeting: Key takeaways
“He occupies territories… destroys entire cities, kills, rapes, robs, kidnaps, tortures, and as a result receives a red carpet welcome,” was one comment typical of many.
This morning a prominent Ukrainian artist Nikita Titov posted a striking image that sums up the worldview many believe is emerging from Alaska. The communist hammer and sickle but with Donald Trump’s trademark red tie replacing the hammer.
If Trump was sincere in wanting the killing to end he could resort to far more effective means than inconclusive summitry. Secondary sanctions on Russia’s oil industry and those who trade in it would be something for Putin to think about.
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Ukrainians are hugely frustrated Trump seems strangely reluctant to impose them. To them, this summit was an elaborate ruse to avoid doing so again.
In both substance and outcome Alaska sends a clear message to Ukraine and its European allies. America may carry on supporting their defence but now by selling not supplying weapons. It may or may not carry on providing absolutely essential military intelligence. But otherwise they are increasingly on their own.
That penny has been dropping for months in European capitals. Alaska has only rammed the point further home. The challenge for Europe is to ramp up its ability to support Ukraine quickly enough to fill the growing vacuum left by an American president whose sympathies increasingly lie elsewhere.