Blinken, UK's Cameron push for more US aid to Ukraine
WASHINGTON Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron urged Congress on Tuesday to approve new military aid for Ukraine, saying the stalled funding is critical for U.S., European and world security.
Speaking after a meeting at the State Department, Blinken repeated long-standing appeals for lawmakers to unblock the assistance that President Joe Biden has sought for months, while Cameron said he would make the same case in meetings on Capitol Hill “as a great friend” of the United States.
“I come here with no intention to lecture anybody or tell anybody what to do or get in the way of the process of politics and other things in the United States,” he said. “I just come here as a great friend and believer in this country and a believer that it's profoundly in your interest, in your security, and your future and the future of your partners to release this money and let it through.”
Cameron is just the latest of numerous foreign government officials who have urged American lawmakers to act swiftly to approve the assistance amid increasing concern over the U.S. role. Last week in Brussels, nearly all NATO member foreign ministers said the U.S. contribution is essential, echoing comments by Biden, Blinken and other administration officials.
“The supplemental budget request that President Biden has made of Congress is urgent and it's imperative since the House is now back in session,” Blinken said. “We look to see that brought before the house and to get a vote as quickly as possible.”
Cameron also met on Monday in Florida with former President Donald Trump, who has been skeptical of Ukraine aid, and said the assistance is “vital for American and European security.” Cameron defended his meeting with Trump as a standard encounter with an opposition figure and said it covered a number of pressing global issues but did not elaborate.
“This was entirely in line with precedent with government ministers meeting with opposition politicians in the run-up to elections,” he said, noting that they discussed “a range of important geopolitical subjects” and that both British and American politicians have frequently met with opposition figures in their respective countries.
“These things are entirely proper,” Cameron said.
Cameron said victory for Ukraine is “vital for American and European security,” but the former president and presumptive Republican candidate is a critic of continued U.S. support, and lawmakers aligned with him are holding up an aid package for Kyiv in Congress.
Cameron and Trump have had several notable differences of opinion in the past. Cameron called Trump's proposal during his first presidential campaign to ban Muslims from the U.S. “divisive, stupid and wrong.”
In a statement, Trump's campaign said the meeting was held “to discuss several issues impacting both countries,” including upcoming elections in both Britain and the United States, the implications of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, the need for NATO allies to meet their commitments on defense spending and “ending the killing in Ukraine.”
The statement did not elaborate on those topics but added that Trump, Cameron and British ambassador to the U.S. Karen Pierce, had “also discussed their mutual admiration for the late Queen Elizabeth II.”