LONDON — (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance met with U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Friday at a stately home south of London, with the two leaders saying the agenda includes global economics and the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Taking questions from reporters before their talks, Vance addressed the U.K. decision to recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza, saying he wasn't sure what such recognition would even mean, "given the lack of a functional government there."
Asked whether Trump had been given a heads up on Israel's announced intent to occupy Gaza City, Vance said he wouldn't go into such conversations.
“If it was easy to bring peace to that region of the world, it would have been done already,” he said.
The meeting comes amid debates between Washington and London about the best way to end the wars between Russia and Ukraine, as well as Israel and Hamas. It’s also taking place as the United Kingdom tries to come to favorable terms for steel and aluminum exports to the U.S., and the two sides work out details of a broader trade deal announced at the end of June.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he hoped to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump next week, comments that came a day before Trump's deadline for Moscow to show progress in ending the nearly 3½-year war in Ukraine.
While Trump has focused on bilateral talks with Putin, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other European leaders have stressed that Ukraine must be part of any negotiations on ending the war.
The U.S. and Britain, which have historically close ties known as “the special relationship,” have also disagreed on their approach to ending the war in Gaza.
The meeting took place at Chevening, an almost 400-year-old mansion surrounded by 3,000 acres (about 1,200 hectares) of gardens that serves as the foreign secretary’s official country residence.
About two dozen protesters were spotted on the road before the turnoff to the stately home. A few were wearing keffiyeh scarves and another held up a round sign that had a meme making fun of Vance printed on it.
Vance and Lammy come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, but have made a personal connection through their hardscrabble childhoods and Christian faith,
While Lammy is a member of the left-leaning Labour Party and Vance is a conservative Republican who supports Trump’s “America First” agenda, the two men have bonded in recent months.
Lammy told the Guardian newspaper that the two men can relate over their “dysfunctional” working class childhoods and that he considers Vance a “friend.”
Lammy attended a Catholic Mass at the Vance home in Washington earlier this year, and the two men met again at the U.S. Embassy in Rome when he and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner attended the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV in May.
“I had this great sense that JD completely relates to me and he completely relates to Angela,” Lammy told the Guardian. “So it was a wonderful hour and a half.”
After spending a few days at Chevening, Vance and his family will head to the Cotswolds, an area that has become popular with wealthy American tourists because of its quaint villages, stone cottages and rural countryside that hark back to old England. The Vance family’s trip will include official engagements, fundraising, visits to cultural sites and museums and meeting with U.S. troops, according to a person familiar with Vance’s trip who wasn't authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A host of celebrities descended on the area two weeks ago for the wedding of Eve Jobs, the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and Harry Charles, a member of the British equestrian team at last summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
The Cotswolds cover about 800 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) and parts of five counties in the west of England. Vance and his family have reportedly rented a house in the village of Charlbury, 12 miles (20 kilometers) west of Oxford, according to British media outlets.
“That area is very fashionable,” Plum Sykes, a socialite and journalist, told London-based newspaper The Times.
“If you wanted to be in the super-hot, super-social Cotswolds, that’s where you’d go,” she said. “There’s been this mass exodus from America to the Cotswolds. Americans just cannot get over the charm. Then power and money attract power and money.” ___
Meg Kinnard reported from Washington and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP. Michelle L. Price contributed to this report from Washington.
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