The Northwood Headquarters, northwest of London, is where the technical details of the European peace force in Ukraine will begin to be articulated, whose task will be to protect the sovereignty of that country once a ceasefire is reached with Russia. The British government expects around 30 senior military officials from 27 different countries to attend. Prime Minister Keir Starmer himself will address the attendees. Starmer has been increasing his activity in recent weeks to position the United Kingdom as the undisputed leader in the defense of Ukraine.
Coordinating 27 countries in a peace operation during a ceasefire between two contenders, one of which is a nuclear power and also insists on rejecting the presence of those soldiers along a front line of a thousand kilometers, that is, 50% more than the border between Spain and France, will not be easy. The complexities are even greater considering that the participation of those countries in the plan has not been finalized. Only France and the United Kingdom have confirmed they will send soldiers, although Australia could also do so.
Southern European countries - Italy, Portugal, and Spain - seem very reluctant to send troops. However, this does not imply that they will not participate in the so-called Volunteer Coalition. To do so, it would be enough for them to provide logistical support or simply replace the military personnel deployed by their governments to Ukraine in peace missions in other regions of the world. This is a task that Spain, which has participated in numerous peace missions, can carry out.
The Prime Minister's intervention in the military summit occurs at a time when the British government has reported that the Prime Minister has made a visit to the nuclear submarine Vanguard, which arrived this week at its base in Clyde, Scotland, after 204 consecutive days on patrol submerged. The Vanguard, which has the capacity to carry 192 thermonuclear bombs in 16 missiles, has thus surpassed by nine days the record of another ship of the same type reached in September 2023. Starmer's visit to the submarine also has a strong symbolic content: the last time a British Prime Minister was on one of these ships, which are the UK's only nuclear weapons launch system, was Conservative David Cameron in 2013.
The fact that the Vanguard broke the record of its predecessor - whose name is not public - is, however, also a symptom of a more concerning reality for British defense that is repeated in most of the countries meeting today in Northwood: their Armed Forces are getting smaller every day. For this reason, atomic submarines are setting record after record on patrol.
The force that Margaret Thatcher sent to the Falklands to fight against Argentina in 1982 was larger than the entire British Navy today. So, for example, it is not clear how the United Kingdom will deploy its ships in the Black Sea, facing Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey, once some kind of peace agreement is reached. London has already made it clear that it wants its Navy to be present in that region as part of the peace force.
Therefore, ultimately at stake is the rearmament of Europe, now that the US seems willing to disengage from the continent and even indirectly support Russia and political parties sympathetic to Vladimir Putin. The EU is even willing to allow non-European countries into its emerging Defense structure. Canada, according to the American newspaper New York Times, is negotiating with the EU for entry into the European Defense Fund, a system coordinated by the EU that will have 150 billion euros to distribute to military equipment companies. If the negotiations reach an agreement, Canadian companies will be able to benefit from these contracts, something that the UK, Turkey, and the US themselves have unsuccessfully requested.
Canada is redirecting its foreign and security policy towards the EU due to the constant annexation threats made by Donald Trump since taking office on January 20. The new Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has broken with tradition and instead of making his first trip to Washington, he has visited London and Paris.
Paradoxically, the position of the Liberal Party in Canadian polls has surged due to Trump's threats, insults, and tariffs, while the Conservative Party, which was leading the polls with a huge advantage, has plummeted. It is expected that Carney will call for elections to be held at the end of April today, taking advantage of the political boost opposing Donald Trump gives in Canada.