Prime Minister Keir Starmer met President Joe Biden face-to-face for the first time at the summit for the 75th anniversary of Nato to cement the US and UK’s special relationship.
Ahead of the meeting, Starmer said: “We have, within that, a special aspect when it comes to defence and security for obvious reasons including our commitment to Nato.
“We make a unique contribution in Europe to Nato and therefore it’s a very good opportunity for me to talk to the President about how we take forward the important work at this summit.”
Starmer also presented Biden with a personalised Arsenal shirt, with his surname and the number 46, in a reference to his presidential number.
A senior Downing Street official said: “It’s his team and he thought it would make a personal gift.”
As questions have swirled about whether the 81-year-old president is too old to run for a second term, Starmer was put under pressure for his plan to force peers in the House of Lords to retire at 80.
“We’ve got 800-plus members of the House of Lords, it’s simply too big. We need to reduce it,” he replied.
“So it doesn’t reflect on how other elected representatives are chosen in other countries, it’s to do with the size of the House of Lords.”
Starmer also met with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a push for a “significant improvement” of security ties with Europe.