The prime minister has been criticised in some quarters for being overseas again. Sir Keir Starmer is in South Africa for a G20 summit meeting. This means he is, briefly, not in the United Kingdom. But in doing so, he has the chance to meet world leaders face to face and tackle urgent problems in which the UK has a direct national interest.
Sir Keir has spoken to Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, and Friedrich Merz, chancellor of Germany, in Johannesburg, with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, taking part by phone.
They have discussed Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan, which Mr Zelensky says presents Ukraine with “one of the most difficult” choices in the country’s history.
So far, Mr Zelensky has neither accepted nor rejected the deal, which is the right approach, and his allies, including Sir Keir, have been cautious too. The UK prime minister and other allied leaders have said the deal “will require additional work”. The most important objective for the “coalition of the willing” in support of the right of the Ukrainian people to decide their own future is to maintain pressure on Vladimir Putin.
The peace plan has been drawn up by Russian emissaries of Mr Putin and by Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump’s envoy. It is a terrible deal. Much of it is straightforward appeasement of Mr Putin’s aggression, demanding that Ukraine give up territory it currently holds and accept a reduction in the size of its armed forces.
It appears to have been published prematurely, with the claim that Mr Putin has “accepted” it. Yet there are signs that the Russians still require clarification on some points. In particular, the United States’ guarantee of Ukraine’s security, which some analysts see as analogous to Nato membership, has always been unacceptable to Moscow.
Although the plan appears to require Ukraine’s “capitulation” and has been drawn up without consulting the Ukrainians, there remains a chance it could be rejected by Mr Putin.
That is why Mr Zelensky is right not to be hurried by Mr Trump’s deadline of 27 November. Mr Trump has a flexible approach to deadlines when he sets them for himself, so this one should not be taken too seriously.
Indeed, the US president seemed to hint at this himself, when he said: “If he doesn’t like it, then you know, they should just keep fighting – at some point he’s going to have to accept something.”
The longer Mr Putin is exposed as the real obstacle to peace, the better. The longer the proposed betrayal of the Ukrainian people by the US is in the public eye, the more likely American opinion will turn against it.
Already Mitch McConnell, a Republican senator, has condemned the deal, saying: “If administration officials are more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, the president ought to find new advisers.”
Fellow Republican Roger Wicker of Mississippi added: “Ukraine should not be forced to give up its lands to one of the world’s most flagrant war criminals in Vladimir Putin.”
Indeed, the longer this deal is scrutinised, the weaker it will make Mr Trump appear. And the US president does not like to appear weak.
Even the prime minister’s critics concede that Sir Keir has generally performed well in international negotiations and has managed Mr Trump with some skill. The more Sir Keir can do, in his non-confrontational way, to show the US president that this deal will not earn him the Nobel Peace Prize, the better.
It is not true that Sir Keir is “never here”, but we approve of the prime minister occasionally being out of the country if it allows him to defend Europe’s security more effectively.
