EU leaders will appeal to Donald Trump in a bid to halt his tariffs which have sent fears of a global trade war skyrocketing. Speaking on Sunday, European Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council António Costa both urged Trump to cease his tariffs policy, which is threatening to severely impact the global economy.

Von der Leyen told reporters: "Let's keep trade between us fair, predictable and open. All of us need to avoid protectionist measures, this is an important message that the G7 can send to the markets and to the world.” The comments come as Trump prepares to meet other world leaders at the G7 summit in Canada this week.

Von der Leyen stressed the need for "a frank discussion among the G7 partners, restoring a sense of stability and predictability among ourselves,” as she worked to pull the US President back from the brink of a trade war that’s impact could be far-reaching.

The issue of defence spending is likely to be high on the agenda at both this weeks G7 summit and the NATO summit taking place later this month.

Trump has for many years stressed the importance of NATO members increasing defence spending and taking greater accountability for European security.

In his second term as president, he has called for spending levels as high as 5% of GDP, with Poland currently the only nation to spend more than 4%.

However, Costa warned against the likelihood of countries being able to increase defence spending levels if engaged in a brutal trade war that was likely to shrink rather than grow budgets.

He said: "This is not the right moment to create uncertainty on the economics, it is not the right moment to create problems on trade, because we need to strengthen our economic bases, the United States need also to strengthen their economic bases.”

UK Prime Minister has been keen to talk up his relationship with the American leader ahead of the summit as he said that there would inevitably be “intense discussions” on topics such as tariffs, Israel and Iran and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Starmer will be hoping that his relationship is as strong as he claims he attempts to steer the US away from withdrawing from the AUKUS agreement.

AUKUS is a multi-billion pound submarine deal between the US, Australia and UK which came into doubt last week amid reports that Washington is considering withdrawing from the agreement.

Last week an official said: "We are reviewing AUKUS as part of ensuring that this initiative of the previous administration is aligned with the President's America First agenda.”