US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to London next week to discuss the Middle East and Ukraine ahead of Keir Starmer’s trip to Washington.
The visit to London on Monday and Tuesday will be the most senior by a US official since Mr Starmer’s Labor party came to power, ending 14 years of Conservative rule.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Mr Blinken’s participation in the strategic dialogue “reaffirms our special relationship.”
He will discuss Asia as well as the Middle East and “our collective efforts to support Ukraine,” Mr. Miller said in a statement.
The White House had earlier announced that Mr Starr, the Prime Minister, would visit next Friday. This will be his second trip to Washington since his election.
He met US President Joe Biden at the White House on July 10, days after taking office, while in the US to attend a NATO summit.
Britain and the United States have cooperated in lockstep on most global issues, and Mr Biden’s Democrats have historically been seen as closer to the Labor Party than the Conservatives.
Mr Starmer, however, has taken a hard line on Israel since taking office, with his government announcing the suspension of some arms shipments, citing the risk it could be used to violate humanitarian law.
Labor also abandoned plans by the former government, led by the then Rishi Sunak, to challenge the International Criminal Court’s authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The US is not a member of the International Criminal Court and has opposed the bid to target Mr Netanyahu, arguing that it has its own system for holding Israel accountable.
But the US, Israel’s primary arms supplier, did not criticize the weapons decision, saying Britain had its own assessment process.
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