Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham is due to meet US President Donald Trump in New York this week, in a first encounter that will test London's promise to defend British interests while keeping a working relationship with Washington.

The meeting is scheduled on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly. According to the Associated Press, Ukraine and the escalating cost of conflict in the Middle East are expected to be among the main subjects. Burnham is also expected to press for stronger air-defence support for Ukraine ahead of another winter of war.

The agenda reaches beyond Europe. The British government wants to discuss restoring the free movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which the AP reported has been largely blocked since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran in February.

Burnham has been prime minister since July and has made only one other foreign trip, to Kyiv. His first UN appearance therefore carries an unusually large burden: it is both a diplomatic introduction and an early test of whether a government with limited foreign-policy experience can make room for disagreement without turning it into rupture.

The meeting will also be read against the wider summit. World leaders are arriving at the UN amid war, climate shocks and arguments over the safety and power of artificial intelligence. For Britain, the immediate question is whether Burnham can convert a promise of pragmatic independence into leverage at a moment when Washington remains indispensable to European security.