European leaders to meet in London on March 2 to talk defense, says Tusk

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that a group of European leaders will head to London on Sunday to discuss joint plans on defense and security.

Tusk said that the European Commission is preparing a defense package, details of which will be announced at the special summit of European Union leaders scheduled for March 6.

Ahead of this meeting, “we will be in London on Sunday, together with our British friends and a group of leaders, to talk about these joint plans on defense,” he added.

“I hope … that this greater mobilization of Europe, both member states and Europe as a whole, when it comes to defense and security funding, will become an unequivocal fact,” said Tusk after a meeting with European Council President António Costa.

Costa earlier Tuesday announced a video conference of European leaders Wednesday morning ahead of the special summit to be debriefed on French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit on Monday to Washington, D.C., where met with United States President Donald Trump to push for security guarantees for Ukraine.

The week prior, Trump placed into question U.S. involvement in the conflict and called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections.”

“We are living a defining moment for Ukraine and European security,” Costa said in a social media post announcing his decision to convene the special summit.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to meet Trump on Thursday. He announced on Tuesday that the United Kingdom will increase defense spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product from 2027.