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Their talks late Monday came ahead of Cameron’s trip to Washington to meet Republican lawmakers as well as Biden administration officials. The visit comes at a sensitive time as the UK, France and other nations try to keep the international focus on Ukraine’s battle to repel Russia’s invasion.
US funding is critical, but a $60 billion aid package has become snarled in politicking ahead of the presidential election in November. House Speaker Mike Johnson has so far declined to call a vote on the funding as he tries to prevent a rebellion from Republican hard-liners who could sink the legislation and even try to oust him as speaker. The Senate has already approved the aid.
Ahead of his trip, Cameron said on X that “Speaker Johnson can make it happen in Congress.” But asked by reporters in Washington why he isn’t meeting the Louisiana Republican, the foreign secretary replied that he is speaking to senators and congressman on “both sides of the aisle” to make his point that ensuring Ukraine wins is in US interests.
“There will be people in Iran, in Pyongyang, in Beijing looking at how we stand by our allies, how we help them, how we stop this illegal and unprovoked aggression and working out whether we are committed, whether we’re prepared to see it through,” Cameron said at a joint press conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “I’m here to offer my opinion, to meet with anyone who wants to talk to me about it, to make those arguments.”
Trump is seen as the key to unlocking the Republican opposition, providing the context for Cameron’s visit. Facing an electoral rematch against President Joe Biden in November, Trump is skeptical about providing military support to Ukraine and has suggested giving loans instead of direct funding.
Yet Cameron was tight-lipped about his talks with Trump, calling it a private meeting and saying only that they discussed “important geopolitical subjects.”
In a statement, Trump’s campaign said the former president and Cameron discussed issues including the “upcoming US and UK elections, policy matters specific to Brexit, the need for NATO countries to meet their defense spending requirements, and ending the killing in Ukraine.”
The UK argues that US aid is vital to Ukraine’s ability to continue to resist Russian forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pleaded for the swift approval of US aid, as his country’s forces wrestle with ammunition shortages and delays in supplies of artillery shells from allies that have left them outgunned against Russia by as much as six to one.
Cameron has a strained history with Trump — in contrast to the warmer ties enjoyed by his successor and political rival Boris Johnson, who has also lobbied Trump to step up support for Ukraine.
In late 2015, Cameron — who was UK prime minister at the time — called the then presidential candidate’s proposal to ban Muslims entering the US as “divisive, stupid and wrong.” His intervention prompted Trump to speculate he might not have a “very good relationship” with Cameron.
The pair squared off again over Trump’s public backing for the UK to vote to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum called by Cameron. The Republican candidate’s intervention came as then US President Barack Obama had sided with Cameron’s campaign to remain in the bloc.
Defeat over Brexit cast Cameron into the political wilderness until Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed him foreign secretary last year. In February Cameron criticized Trump again, this time over his suggestion that the US should not protect NATO countries who don’t spend enough on defense.
NATO is “more essential than ever,” Cameron told reporters, adding that Trump’s remarks were not “responsible or sensible.”
Though Cameron’s meeting with Trump raised eyebrows — at least in the British media — due to their background, it is unlikely to hurt the UK’s relationship with the Biden White House. With Britain gearing up for a general election expected later this year, Blinken held talks with opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in February.
During the press conference, Cameron also said that the UK will continue to sell arms to Israel following revised advice from the government’s lawyers. “The latest assessment leaves our position on export licenses unchanged,” he said.
Cameron said he would not comment on the legal advice he received. His response comes amid pressure from opposition parties and some members of the UK’s governing Conservatives to outline whether government lawyers judge Israel is breaching international humanitarian law in Gaza in the wake of last week’s Israeli strike that killed seven aid workers, including three Britons.
(Updates with Cameron comments from fifth paragraph.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
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Published: 10 Apr 2024, 04:59 AM IST
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