°®Âþµº

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to London next week to discuss the Middle East and Ukraine, the State Department announced Saturday, ahead of a US visit by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Blinken's visit to London on Monday and Tuesday will be the senior-most by a US official since Starmer's Labour Party won July elections, ending 14 years of Conservative rule.

Blinken will take part in a strategic dialogue "reaffirming our special relationship," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

He will discuss Asia as well as the Middle East and "our collective efforts to support Ukraine," Miller said in a statement.

The White House earlier announced that Starmer will visit next Friday, his second trip to Washington since his election.

He met President Joe Biden at the White House on July 10, days after taking office, as Starmer attended a NATO summit in Washington.

Britain and the United States have cooperated in lockstep on most global issues, and Biden's Democrats historically have been seen as closer to the Labour Party than the Conservatives.

Starmer, however, has taken a harder line on Israel since taking office, with his government announcing a suspension of some arms shipments, citing the risk that they could be used to violate humanitarian law.

The Labour government has also dropped its Conservative predecessor's plans to challenge the right of the International Criminal Court to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court and has opposed the bid to target Netanyahu, arguing that Israel has its own systems for accountability.

But the United States, Israel's primary weapons supplier, did not criticize the arms decision, saying that Britain had its own process to make assessments.