LONDON

US Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday met American forces stationed in Gloucestershire, England, paying a high-profile visit to the UK for talks with European leaders about the war in Ukraine.

The trip comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Vance said the visit was part of an effort to strengthen ties with European allies, while pressing them to take “greater ownership” of discussions over the conflict, which he described as being “in their backyard.”

Addressing US troops at the base, he praised their role in bolstering US influence abroad.

“I think if you look back at the last six months, if you look back at the number of lives that we saved in Rwanda and the Congo — the president ended a 30-year war there — if you look at what we've done in the East Asia, where the president ended a conflict, in Serbia-Kosovo, where the president has brought peace to that area of the world, and now, in just a couple of days, with the president heading to Anchorage, Alaska to try to achieve an end to this terrible war in Russia and Ukraine, you guys make that possible,” he said.

“You guys are the reason why we can go into a negotiation with strength. You guys are the reason why we have leverage in these conversations with world leaders, because they know that if we cut a deal, it is backed up by the finest fighting force anywhere in the world.”

Vance’s visit included meetings with senior European officials as Washington seeks to coordinate its position before the Trump-Putin talks.

The face-to-face meeting will be the first between sitting Russian and US presidents since 2021, when Putin met then-US President Joe Biden in Geneva, Switzerland. It will also mark the first time a Russian president sets foot on Alaskan soil since the Russian Empire sold the territory to the US in 1867.