British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has told European Council President Antonio Costa that Britain should be bolder in pursuing closer ties with the European Union, his office said on Monday.

Burnham met Costa late on Sunday while travelling to Kyiv to co-chair a meeting of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing”, marking his first visit to Ukraine since becoming prime minister.

Burnham told Costa that Britain should build on existing defence and security cooperation with European allies and seek closer collaboration across the wider relationship, according to Downing Street.

The British leader said the UK “had to be bolder in terms of getting closer to the bloc”, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

“That included building on the close defence and security ties already forged between the UK and European allies to drive greater cooperation across all areas of the relationship,” she added.

Britain has sought to improve its trading relationship with the EU since Labour came to power in 2024, but progress has been slow, with frustrations on both sides over what Britain can expect outside the bloc's main institutions.

The two leaders agreed that a UK-EU summit later this year would provide a good platform to continue efforts to strengthen ties, Downing Street said.

During his journey to Kyiv, Burnham also met Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden. They discussed ways to increase defence spending, including through the Canada-backed Defence, Security and Resilience Bank and the Multilateral Defence Mechanism launched by Britain, the Netherlands, Finland and Poland.

Downing Street said the two leaders discussed how the two schemes could complement each other.