A relaxing retreat in an idyllic location has turned into a security summit on Ukraine, one of the most decisive moments for that country's future in recent months. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and US Vice President J.D. Vance hosted an emergency meeting of the national security advisers from Europe, the United States, and Ukraine on Saturday to begin preparing for the August 15 meeting in Alaska between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Lammy and Vance are meeting at Chevening House, the mansion near the Kentish town that has served for decades as the holiday home of the current British Foreign Secretary. The two men, who are polar opposites in their political stance, have nevertheless forged a strong friendship based on their deep religious affiliation and the fact that both suffered complex upbringings in dysfunctional families, as Lammy himself explained. Before continuing their family vacation in the Cotswolds, the region in western England where Britain's rich and famous have their mansions, Vance and his family were planning to spend the weekend as guests of the minister.
In recent hours, images have emerged of the two politicians, relaxed and enjoying a fishing session in a river near the mansion.
Trump's announcement setting a date for the meeting with Putin has altered everyone's agenda. At the suggestion of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who had previously held a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, preparations for the Chevening summit have begun. The meeting had been requested by the US White House, with the intention of outlining the steps of Trump's new attempt to end the war, as well as to define support for this effort from Ukraine's group of allied countries.
Starmer and Zelensky agreed that the meeting “would be a key forum to begin discussing progress towards a just and lasting peace,” a British government spokesperson said, adding that “both leaders welcomed President Trump’s desire to end this barbaric war, and both agreed to maintain pressure on Putin to end an illegal war.”
The Chevening summit is shaping up to be a new attempt by London, Kyiv, and other European capitals to impose their participation in any future solution for Ukraine, and above all, to avoid an unbalanced and unfair solution. In announcing his upcoming meeting with Putin in Alaska, Trump again suggested that the Ukrainian government will be forced to cede part of its territory if it wants to achieve peace. As on previous occasions, both Zelensky and his European partners have made it clear that they"seek constructive diplomacy and solutions that can work." The Ukrainian president noted that his country's Constitution prevents him from ceding part of the country.
