British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will travel to Washington next week to meet with President Joe Biden to discuss support for Ukraine ahead of the NATO summit, Downing Street reported today.

The visit, scheduled for June 7 and 8, aims to “increase the level of cooperation and coordination between the UK and the United States on economic issues that will determine the future,” a spokesman for the British Conservative leader said.

“It will also be an opportunity to discuss various issues such as support for Ukraine on the basis of the success of the G7 summit and ahead of the NATO summit” in July in Vilnius, he added.

Sunak will also meet with members of Congress and American businessmen, but there will be no negotiations on a formal free trade agreement. Instead, the focus will be on reducing trade barriers in other ways, such as agreements with individual states, the spokesman said.

London was the first Kyiv ally to supply tanks to the Ukrainian military ahead of the US and advocated for the delivery of fighter jets before the US gave the green light to supply F-16s.

This will be Rishi Sunak’s first trip to Washington since taking office last October.

In March, the British Prime Minister traveled to California for an AUKUS alliance summit with the US, UK and Australia. When Biden and Sunak met in San Diego to begin the next phase of the three-nation AUKUS submarine alliance, Sunak accepted Biden’s invitation to visit the White House.

The American president traveled to Belfast in mid-April to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to the British countryside.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP, Reuters, dpa.