Foreign leaders could be barred from visiting Britain if their governments refuse to help tackle illegal migration
A secret letter from the Foreign Office orders ambassadors to ramp up pressure on countries blocking efforts to stop the boats.
Diplomats have been told to use visas and official visits as leverage.
The internal memo, seen by The Sun, warns: 'Some of what we will need to consider will require us to challenge our current approaches.'
Ambassadors have been ordered to 'use the levers of our bilateral relationships more creatively to drive cooperation'.
It comes after migrant Channel crossings this year to date surged past the 20,000 marker in record time piling pressure on Labour to get a grip.
On Tuesday, another 440 made the journey, the Home Office said.
Yesterday, amid chaotic scenes in Graveline, France, a desperate mother with her child was seen pleading with traffickers to let her aboard a dinghy.
Last week, security sources warned that Russia was pushing migrants to the UK to overwhelm border defences and sow division.
Vladimir Putin's smuggling gangs.
More than 18,000 have arrived in dinghies so far this year — and opposition MPs said the crossings should now be declared a 'national security crisis'.
Senior security sources warned The Sun that foreign powers are backing or exploiting smuggling gangs in a bid to destabilise Britain.
Also last week, Nato recognised illegal migration as a key threat to national security — by ruling that border protection can count towards every member's defence spending targets for the first time.
Just 299 migrants crossed the Channel in 2018. The highest year for arrivals was 2022 at 45,774.
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Telegraph
19 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Trump has hung Ukraine out to dry
Volodymyr Zelensky thought he had done everything right. When Donald Trump demanded he sign away Ukraine's mineral rights in exchange for military aid, he did it. When the White House decided that offering Moscow an unconditional ceasefire was the only way to stop the war, Zelensky quickly acquiesced. When the US asked Ukraine to hold off using Nato military equipment against targets inside Russia, they agreed. In the end it didn't make any difference. This week Politico broke the news that the US Department of Defence had paused key weapons deliveries already agreed to and funded by Congress under the Biden administration; this leaves Ukrainian cities defenceless against Russian missile strikes and its troops dangerously low on ammunition. Trump has already clearly signalled his opposition to future arms shipments from the US. But cutting off arms already promised and paid for seems cruel and gratuitous. 'This decision was made to put America's interests first following a DOD review of our nation's military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,' explained deputy White House press secretary Anna Kelly. 'The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran.' But drill down into the list of weapons withheld this week and the claim that the US is protecting its own dwindling supplies makes little sense. For a start, almost all the pledged weapons are located in American military stockpiles in Poland, not in the US. The Defence Department has blocked the transfer of 250 GMLRS missiles to Ukraine – yet Lockheed Martin makes 14,000 a year. Ukraine will receive 8,496 fewer rounds of 155 mm artillery shells – which is less than a week's production by US industry. And it's hard to see how holding back 25 Stinger missiles is going to help Make America Great Again. There is some debate over whether the delivery freeze comes on the orders of the White House, or whether it's a screw-up by the bean counters in America's defence department. Indeed, just last week Trump signalled that he was willing to find some more Patriot batteries for Kyiv – the holy grail of missile defence that Ukraine so desperately needs as Russia ramps up its missile attacks to unprecedented levels of intensity and frequency. But in the big picture it doesn't matter. Long-term, Trump has made it clear that the US is out of the Ukraine weapons supply game, and he believes that the war must end in diplomacy. Sending more weapons to Kyiv, Trump apparently believes, will only add fuel to the conflict. Trump is wrong, for one simple reason. Ukraine is currently fighting a defensive war on the ground, and slowly losing it in part because of a lack of firepower. Its only successful attacks are targeted at Russian airfields and military factories, and these strikes are undertaken using ingenious weapons of Ukraine's own devising and manufacture. And Kyiv has signalled that it's ready for an immediate ceasefire if Russia follows suit. Ukraine needs weapons to defend against continuous Russian attacks, not to prolong the war. Ukraine's biggest practical problem is that European promises to step into the breach and fill the gap left by the US have so far yielded little in the way of actual arms deliveries. European militaries have been hollowed out by years of budget cuts, and whatever meagre stockpiles existed three years ago have been quickly consumed in the killing fields of Donbas. Pledges to increase defence spending to five per cent of GDP agreed at the Nato summit earlier this month will boost Europe's military industrial complex – indeed the market capitalisation of Rheinmetall, the German tank manufacturer, have risen above Volkswagen's. But that extra investment will take years to make a difference. Europe's immediate answer has been to buy US arms and donate them to Ukraine. But if Washington is not able or willing to send crucial armaments to Kyiv, as this week's withheld shipments suggests, then Zelensky's situation is worse than his remaining allies feared.
The Independent
27 minutes ago
- The Independent
How Ukraine can cope with the US pause on crucial battlefield weapons
The decision by the United States to pause some weapons shipments to Ukraine has come at a tough time for Kyiv: Russia's bigger army is making a concerted push on parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and is intensifying long-range drone and missile attacks that increasingly hammer civilians in Ukrainian cities. Washington has been Ukraine's biggest military backer since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022. But the Trump administration has been disengaging from the war, and no end to the fighting is in sight, despite recent direct peace talks. Here's a look at Ukraine's options following the U.S. pause of some arms deliveries: Specific weapons needed from U.S. Amid recurring concerns in Kyiv about how much military support its allies can supply and how quickly, Ukraine has raced to build up its domestic defense industry. The country's output has gradually grown, especially in the production of more and increasingly sophisticated drones, but Ukraine needs to speedily scale up production. Crucially, some high-tech U.S. weapons are irreplaceable. They include Patriot air defense missiles, which are needed to fend off Russia's frequent ballistic missile attacks, but which cost $4 million each. That vital system is included in the pause, and many cities in Ukraine, including Kyiv, could become increasingly vulnerable. A senior Ukrainian official said Thursday that Patriot systems are 'critically necessary' for Ukraine, but U.S.-made HIMARS precision-guided missiles, also paused, are in less urgent need as other countries produce similar assets. 'Other countries that have these (Patriot) systems can only transfer them with U.S. approval. The real question now is how far the United States is willing to go in its reluctance to support Ukraine,' he told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of sensitivity of the subject. The official said that Patriot missiles exist in sufficient numbers globally, and he said that accessing them requires political resolve. 'There are enough missiles out there,' he said, without providing evidence. He also stated that Ukraine has already scaled up its domestic production of 155 mm artillery shells, which were once critically short, and is now capable of producing more than is currently contracted. 'Supplies from abroad have also become more available than before,' he said. Backup plan Amid at times fraught relations with U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been enlisting greater European help for his country's arms manufacturing plans. European countries don't have the production levels, military stockpiles or the technology to pick up all the slack left by the U.S. pause, but Zelenskyy is recruiting their help for ambitious joint investment projects. Draft legislation to help Ukrainian defense manufacturers scale up and modernize production, including building new facilities at home and abroad, will be put to a vote in the Ukrainian parliament later this month, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced this week. Zelenskyy said last month that major investments will go to the production of drones and artillery shells. 'The volume of support this year is the largest since the start of the full-scale war,' he said about commitments from foreign countries. Under Trump, there have been no new announcements of U.S. military or weapons aid to Ukraine. Between March and April, the United States allocated no new help at all, according to Germany's Kiel Institute, which tracks such support. For the first time since June 2022, four months after Russia's full-scale invasion, European countries have surpassed the U.S. in total military aid, totaling 72 billion euros ($85 billion) compared with 65 billion euros ($77 billion) from the U.S., the institute said last month. Big battlefield problem Without Patriot missiles, as well as the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile and shorter-range Stinger missiles that are also included in the pause, Ukrainian cities likely will take a bashing as more Russian missiles pierce air defenses. On the front line, Ukrainian troops haven't recently voiced complaints about ammunition shortages, as they have in the past. They have always said that during the war, they have never had as much ammunition to as their disposal as Russian forces. The army faces a different problem: It's desperately short-handed. It's turning to drones to compensate for its manpower shortage, and analysts say the front isn't about to collapse. Asked about the timing of the U.S. pause, the Ukrainian official emphasized the need for stable, reliable supply lines. 'This is war — and in war, steady deliveries are always crucial,' he said. ___ Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. ___
The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
EU closing in on ‘framework' trade deal with US to avoid Trump's 50% tariffs
The EU and US are closing in on a high-level 'framework' trade deal that will avert 50% tariffs being imposed on all exports from the bloc next Wednesday, Donald Trump's self-imposed deadline. Talks in Washington could go down to the wire, but multiple diplomats and officials said the EU was now willing to accept Trump's 10% blanket tariffs. However, negotiators will accept this only in exchange for an extension in talks and possible concessions on a 25% car tariff, which is hurting the German car industry, sources said. Trump has threatened to impose 50% tariffs on all EU goods from 9 July unless the two sides reach a deal. Most EU goods already face a 10% tariff, with levies of 25% on cars and car parts and 50% on steel and aluminium. The EU's trade chief, Maroš Šefčovič, who is in Washington seeking to seal an agreement, has been granted an unexpected meeting with the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, on Thursday afternoon. Šefčovič will also meet the trade representative Jamieson Greer and the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who has been closest to Trump in other key talks including with China. The push to go for a narrowly focused agreement in principle comes days after the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, reiterated his calls for a 'quick deal'. 'It is better to achieve a quick and simple solution than a lengthy and complicated one that remains in the negotiation stage for months,' Merz said in Berlin. Merz said a quick deal was needed 'to remove the burden of tariffs on our businesses, which are far too high'. He added that the current talks were 'not about a minutely detailed trade deal' but 'the quick resolution of a tariff dispute'. Šefčovič was seeking a standstill clause to provide 'guarantees that the US can stand over' that there would be no imposition of new tariffs in any extension period, said one politician with knowledge of the talks. One EU diplomat said they expected a deal 'if not this week then before Wednesday', as it was 'in everybody's interest'. 'It will be very high level, but enough for Trump to declare victory,' said one source. Some believe that a deal could even be struck this week, giving Trump a significant announcement on 4 July independence day celebrations on Friday. Talks between the EU and the US have been ongoing since early April when Trump, in a theatrical 'liberation day' presentation, imposed tariffs on 60-plus countries. He has concluded a formal deal with only one of those countries, the UK, although he claims to have some agreements struck with Vietnam and China. One source told how the EU delegation that flew to Washington for talks in April were handed a 'massive tome' on the US's 'grievances, country by country'. They added: 'There were about 30 pages on the EU alone.' Sources in Berlin said Merz took some time to persuade the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to switch tack and pursue a UK-style approach. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion On Thursday, von der Leyen said: 'Indeed, what we are aiming at is an agreement in principle, because [with] such a volume, in 90 days, an agreement in detail, it's impossible … That is also what the UK did. And as far as I'm informed, there are only two countries so far worldwide that have concluded with an agreement in principle.' Others said Trump's frustration lay with the approach of a European institution used to dealing with 27 member states and the minute detail of regulation. They also indicated that the US's latest proposal – sent to EU leaders last Wednesday – 'did not include any details on … concessions from the US side'. In a briefing to EU ambassadors this week, von der Leyen's chief of staff, Bjoern Seibert, and the director general of the commission's trade department, Sabine Weyand, told member states the US wanted deals on four areas including tariffs. The other three issues were strategically important sectors such as pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, economic purchases such as oil and gas and non-trade barriers including tech regulation, and food and car regulation, all red lines for the EU. Šefčovič is expected to brief European ambassadors on the latest state of play again on Friday afternoon.
